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THE 



TEEE-LIFTEE 



LONDON : PRINTED BY 
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQtJARB 
AND PARLIAJIENT STREET 



I 




THE 



TEEE-LIFTEB 

OR 

A NEW METHOD OF TRANSPLANTING FOREST TREES 



BY 

COL. GEOECtE geeenwood 



He who has planted a tree has set the elements to work for him 



THIRD EDITION- 




LONDON 

LONGMANS, GEE EN, AND CO. 
1876 



AU righis vpsf-rved 



CONTENTS. 



PAET I. 

PRACTICAL PART OF TRANSPLANTING. 



Advantages of the system ........ 1 

Description of the tree-lifter 3 

Description of implements 5 

Description of water-cask . . . . ... .7 

Directions for practice . . .* . . . . . .8 



PAET II. 

THEORY OF TRANSPLANTING, OR PHYSIOLOGY OF 
TREES IN REFERENCE TO TRANSPLANTING. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED BY THE SURFACE OF 
THE ROOTS. 

Proportion the head of a transplanted tree to the root . . .12 
Prefatory remark to entering on the physiology of trees . . .12 
The course of the Treatise will go, with the sap, from the root, 

through the wood to the leaf, and back by the bark to the root . 13 
Except the unripe ends of roots, trees imbibe from all parts exposed 

to moisture, and transpire from all parts exposed to drought . 14 
The food of trees is imbibed by the surface of the roots , . .14 
Food of agastric animals imbibed by the surface . . . .14 

Seeds imbibe by the surface 14 

Cuttings imbibe by the surface .15 

The coiled brancli imbibes by the surface 17 

Radishes imbibe by the surface ....... 17 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The unripe ends of roots do not imbibe . ... . . .17 

Formation of the ends of roots 17 

Ends of roots consist only of bark, which is the descending, not the 

ascending, conduit . , .18 

Experiments in proof .19 

Seedlings are not nourished by their roots till the roots become 

woody, but by the seed 19 

Symmetrical growth on root of horse-chestnut . . . .20 

Twin oaks 20 

That a radish is fed only by its end a fallacy . . . . .21 
Experiments in proof ......... 22 



That branches are the same length as roots a fallacy, and that the 

ends of branches drip on to the ends of roots a fallacy . . .26 
Branches shorter than roots, and the drip is through them, not out- 
side them 27 

Form of the root a flat circle, like a wheel ; form of the head a 

globular circle, like a ball -27 

The head robs the root of a little rain, but more than repays this by 
condensation .......... 28 

Rain and condensation are often shed inwards or towards the stem . 31 
Argument from the ' Gardener's Chronicle ' considered . . .32 
The spade the destroyer of wall-fruit trees . . . , .33 

Unphilosophicar remedies 34 

That roots absorb only by sponges or capillary stomata at their ends 
a scientific vulgar error ......... 35 

Whether this is true or not of vital importance to transplanting . 36 
Ends of roots to a tree what children are to a commonwealth . . 36 



CHAPTER II. 

COURSE OF THE SAP FROM THE ROOT TO THE LEAF, 
AND BACK TO THE ROOT. 

Course of the upward sap through the whole of the wood . . 38 
The upward sap goes through the heart-wood ; proof by experiment 39 
And through the sap-wood ; proof by example . . . .40 
By what mechanical power is the upward sap raised ? . . .41 
Where is the sap elaborated ? Whence the new growth in girth- 



ing deposited ? 43 

Sap supjjosed to be elaborated in the leaf 44 

Growth in girthing supposed to be deposited from this elaborated sap 

in returning down the bark ........ 44 



CONTENTS. 



Vll 



PAGE 

First otlice of the leaf, transpiration and excretion . . . .44 

Leaf supposed by some to absorb the food of plants . . .45 
Errors of Liebig .......... 46 

Second office of the leaf, the formation of winter-bud . . .58 
Third office of the leaf, the changing of the sap from the upward 

conduit, the wood, to the downward conduit, the bark . . 58 
The growth in girthing is from the downward sap, or dependent on 

it ; proof by experiment 58 

And supposed to be deposited from the bark . . . . .59 

But elaboration certainly takes place before the sap reaches the leaf 61 
And also after it quits the leaf ....... 61 

Received theories of growth in girthing . . . . .61 

The pith or medulla, and medullary rays or silver grain . . .62 
Medullary rays longitudinal plates, only bounded in length by the 

height of trees and length of branches and roots , . . .63 

The shake, and cup-shake 64 

Lateral as well as longitudinal flow of sap through the whole wood 65 
The longitudinal pith-channels extend throughout the tree, from the 

pith of the original seedling to the finest ramifications of the roots 

and branches of the largest tree which is entirely alive . . 66 
Diminution in the size of the pith and its disappearance vulgar errors 67 
Whether the pith is the conduit of the upward sap or not . , 68 
Do the central piths of budded buds, of grafts, and of the shoots of 

coppice-wood, communicate with Dutrochet's concentrical piths ? . 69 
Office of the pith unknown ........ 72 

As the sap-channels are general, not peculiar, pruning increases the 

supply to the leader ......... 72 

A new layer of bark is formed every year . . . . .73 

That roots have no piths an error 76 

There is no true circulation of the sap like that of the blood of 

animals 78 



CHAPTER III. 

UPWARD GROWTH OF THE 'hEAD, AND DOWNWARD GROWTH 
OF THE ROOTS. 

Upward growth of the head, and downward growth of the roots, 
considered together ......... 80 

The upward growth of a tree, or lengthening of its shoot, is by the 
enlargement of all the parts of that shoot j and all these parts 
progress bodily upward 80 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The downward growth of the tree, or lengthening of the root, is 



simply by growth at the end of the root . . . . .81 
By what agency is the head directed upward and the root down- 
ward ? 81 

Turgescence, and the action of light on turgescence, probably direct 

the growth of the head of the plant , . . . . . 83 
Cellular formation of the bark of green shoots ..... 83 
How turgescence acts on the cellular formation . . . .83 
How light acts on this turgescence 84 



Dutrochet, Knight, Davy^ &c., think that gravity directs the growth 

both of the head and roots of trees. Experiments in proof . . 85 
Upward growth of lirst gemniule when deprived of light . . 88 
Crane-neck growth of first gemmule of a double-seeded plant, to 

shield it while forced through the earth . . . . .89 
Roots grow through the earth almost without force . . . .89 
Provision to enable the gemmule of a single-seeded plant to thrust 

itself through the earth ........ 91 

Probable distinct organisation of the first gemmule . . .92 
Strong downward determination of tap-root, and probable distinct 

organisation of it . . . . . . . . . .94 

Tap-root only proper to seedlings, and a contrivance for fixing them 97 
That the growth of the head and root of a tree is directed by 

gravity disputed 101 

General growth of head towards light ; general growth of root to 

wherever it can find good soil . . . . . . . lOo 

CHAPTER IV. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Barked horse-chestnut at Esher ....... 108 

Best time for transplanting with the ball of earth . . . . ] 13 

Absurd notion that trees deradicate as well as defoliate . . .116 
The growth in girthing descending from the head or any particular 
branch is general round the stem ; but it is greater on the side 

proper to the branch . , . ' 118 

And the growth may be mecJianicaUy and continually turned from 
one side of the stem to the other . . . . . . ,119 

Lateral upicard. growth of the root . . , . . . .119 

Origin of spurs and the swell of the roots 122 

A tap-rooted tree should have no spurs or swell of the root . . ] 24 
Girthing of the stem dependent on the quantity of branches above it 125 
There is a constant circulation of sap even in winter . . . 126 



CONTENTS. ix 

PAGE 

If SO, coppice-wood should be cut as late in winter as possible . .127 
Best time for felling timber ........ 130 

Roots should not be covered deeply 130 

That a hill affords no more space for growth than its base would, an 
error ............ 131 

Effect of wind on trees ... . 133 

Effect of sea breeze mechanical, not chemical ..... 134 



PAET III. 

ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, OR POISONED 
BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? THESE QUESTIONS IN- 
CLUDE EXCRETION FROM ROOTS; SOCIABILITY OF 
PLANTS; ACCUMULATION OF SOIL IN WOODS ; GENE- 
RAL DENUDATION OF SOIL FROM WASH OF RAIN. 

The food of plants is extracted from the soil. But if the plants are 



returned to the soil, no impoverishment takes place . . . 136 

Roots do not excrete 139 

►Sociability of plants a fancy 142 

Sociability of holly and beech owing to holly bearing shade better 

than other plants 151 

The soil of woods does not become poorer, but richer . . . 155 
Is there any other cause for this besides protection by the roots 

from aqueous denudation 155 
Aqueous denudation is universal, and is not confined only to the 

lines of torrents and rivers ........ 157 

No necessity for rotation in Nature's cropping 183 



PAET IV. 

PRUNING AND THINNING. 



For beauty we should have every variety of growth .... 185 
Trees cannot attain their maximum height by nature — that is, 

without pruning and thinning 186 

The works of God can be improved by man . . . . . 186 
To grow valuable timber, maximum head on maximum height of 

branchless stem . . . . . . . , . ,187 

Rules for pruning for height ........ 187 



X CONTENTS. 

PARE 

Plantations are, and should he, planted too thick to grow, and should 
be thinned every 3'ear ......... 188 

No turnips without hoeing ; no trees without thinning . . .389 
Never too late to thin ......... 189 

Cut the worst plants worst placed ; leave the best plants best placed 189 
Pruning does not increase the aggregate quantity of wood made by 
a tree, but, by improving its locatmt, increases the measurable 

timber 191 

Example 192 

That a branchless stem is a natural attribute of a tree is a mistake 

of De Candolle's 194 

A living branch forms a cross-grain ; when it dies, an united knot ; 

what is afterwards inclosed, a disunited, movable knot . . 196 
Healing over an amputated branch ....... 202 

Prejudice against pruning with the saw, a vulgar error . . . 204 
Explanation of Plates I. and II. ...... . 205 

Best time for pruning . . . . . . . . . 214 

Measurement and longevity of trees ...... 215 



PAET Y. 

THE PARK PINETUM 228 

CONCLUDING REMARKS 234 



THE TEEE-LIFTEE. 



PART 1. 

PEACTICAL PART OF TRANSPLANTING. 



J ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM. 

Among tlie advantages of transplanting with ' the tree- 
lifter ' may be reckoned its cheapness. Its simplicity 
is such that the whole may be performed, and even 
single-handed, by a common day labourer. One man 
may plant one tree per day, of from twenty-five to 
thirty feet in height. To transplant trees without the 
ball of earth requires great skill, care, labour, and 
expense in tracing out the small fibres of the roots, 
whose extreme points, with their supposed spongioles, 
could by no delicacy of operation be retained, and 
which after all are nearly valueless. All transplanted 
trees are the better for being watered ; but with the 
ball of earth this is by no means necessary. To trans- 
plant without the ball of earth, and not to water, for 
at least two summers, is hopeless. This is a great 

B 



2 



PRACTICAL PAET 



pr. I. 



expense, besides staking and tying, wliicli plants with 
the ball of earth do not need. The growth of trees 
transplanted with ' the tree-lifter ' is not checked ; but 
without a ball of earth, trees transplanted, with what- 
ever care, or at whatever expense, are checked in 
their growth for eight or ten years, and if they do not 
die, they become living scarecrows. 

In fact, trees transplanted by ' the tree-lifter ' are 
very much in the same situation as those prepared for 
transplanting, as it is called, in the old-fashioned way, 
by cutting a trench round them. This method was 
originated in the time of Charles II., by Lord Fitz- 
Harding, as Evelyn tells us. But the trees trans- 
planted by ' the tree-lifter ' gain the great advantage 
of making their new roots in the ground where they 
are to remain for ever, and escape the injuries of a 
subsequent removal. 

The best months for transplanting the generality of 
English trees, with the ball of earth, are July, August, 
and September. 

Over the nursery plant, as a single tree, the trans- 
planted tree has the advantage of a start of from 
twenty-five to thirty years, besides saving the expense 
of the material, and carpenter's work, for at least two 
fences for each tree. 

The system recommended would have peculiar 
advantages for planting or for keeping up avenues. 



FT. r. 



OF TKANSPLANTING. 



3 



DESCKIPTION OF THE TREE- LIFTER. 

A pair of wheels, 8 feet in diameter, standing 4 feet 
6 inches apart, or the same widtli apart as the common 
carts and waggons of the country. Twenty spokes. 
Width of the tire, 2-| inches. The wheels quite 
straight, and undished. An iron axle of 3 inches 
diameter throughout, and perfectly straight. An iron 
wheel, fixed with a linch-pin, on each end of the axle, 
outside the box of each wooden wheel. The iron 
wheels to have six spokes, ending in wooden handles 
projecting one foot beyond the rims. One wooden 
handle fixed on the rims between each spoke. The 
ends of these twelve handles to be just within tlie rims 
of the wooden wheels. The entire machine thus 
forming simply a windlass on wheels. A strong iron 
ring playing loose on the axle, and a strong iron hook 
playing. loose on this ring, to hold the weight when 
raised. 

Shafts 10 feet 4 inches from the axle ; to take on 
and off the axle by means of a hook and screw. Five 
chains, 12 feet 6 inches in length, with a jiook at each 
end ; one chain, 14 feet 6 inches in length, with a 
hook at each end, and with six round links at each 
end, to distinguish it from the other chains. A box 
with six compartments to hold the chains. Two 
strong planks, 8 feet in length, with a hole bored in 
each, to fit on to a pin on the shafts, along which, and 

B 2 



4 



PRACTICAL PART 



PT. I, 



across the axle, the planks are to rest when carried on 
the machine. A box or thill on the shafts to carry 
four blocks for the wheels, spades, pickaxes, &c. A 
South American surcingle, and three or four 
rope traces with a hook at each end. A strong 
rope to be attached by one end to the axle. 
At the other end a strong iron ring to receive 

Othe chains which encircle the ball of earth, 
and to be attached to the hook and ring on 
the axle, when the weight is raised. 

Possibly the dimensions here given might be in^ 
creased with advantage. 

* The draught axle ' or timber wheels should, like 
this machine, have straight arms to the axle. If the 
arms are bent, the lower parts of the wheels stand 
nearer together than the upper parts. But when the 
shafts are raised to take up the load, the lower parts 
of the wheels are wrenched from one another ; and 
when the shafts are hauled down to raise the load, the 
lower parts of the wheels are again wrenched together. 
Tliis, with heavy loads and rough deep ground, re- 
quires force which no machinery will stand long. 

The only argument which I know in favour of 
bent arms to axles is one which I never heard men- 
tioned or saw stated : it prevents wabbling. It indeed 
creates friction between the boxes and the ends of the 
axles, since the wheel inclines to run up the arm 
which is bent down. But this is not so bad as the 
friction and wear and tear caused by v/abbling. With 



PT. I. 



OF TRANSPLANTING. 



5 



straight arms, wabbling can only be prevented by 
having the arms and boxes very long. This increases 
the friction ; perhaps as much as results from forcing a 
conical wheel to run straight instead of circling out- 
ward from the carriage. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PRUNING SAW, AND PRUNING 
LADDER. 

The best instrument to prune small trees with is a 
carpenter's turiiing saw^ with coarse teeth, set wide 
for the purpose ; having a large handle, with a hook 
to attach it to boughs or the rounds of a ladder, and 
admitting of the blade being taken in and out by 
screws, and replaced when broken. The saw is held 
by the round part of the handle while sawing a 
branch from below upward ; and all branches should, 
if possible, be begun from below, to avoid tearing the 
bark and last layers of wood as the branch falls. A 
chopping instrument, such as a bill-hook, besides 
bruising the bark and sphtting the wood, is apt to cut 
too close, or not close enough, or both ; that is, to 
begin by cutting too close, and to finish by not cutting 
close enough. Or if it finishes close to the stem, great 
risk is run of injury to the bark or branches above 
that amputated. In the case of cutting too close, the 
parts from which the new healing growth is to proceed 
are injured ; in the case of not cutting close enough, a 



6 



PRACTICAL PART 



PT. I. 



dead stump is left to be enclosed by the annually 
increasing stem, which is probably rotten before it is 
enclosed. Besides, a chopping instrument is not adapted 
to getting between branches to thin them out. These 
saws wdll pass between branches which are too close 
better even than the knife. One of these blades fixed 
on a light rod is the best instrument to clear leaders 
which cannot be reached with a knife or a hand-saw. 
In this case, work the saw in a line with the stem of 
the tree ; not across it. These saws may be bought 
at Coleman's, cutler, Haymarket. 

The pruning ladder should be triangular ; that is, 
to the Kentish fruit-ladder, wide at the base and 
narrow at the top, should be added a single prop. 
The lower end of the prop should diverge into two 
branches, to receive a wheel like that of a wheel- 
barrow. When lowered, the ladder is placed and 
wheeled on this prop. When reared, the prop being 
attached to the ladder by a rope, it is pulled towards 
you by raising the ladder by one of its lower rounds. 
If well made this ladder is perfectly wieldable, and 
safe at the height of upwards of twenty feet. 

The ladder is easily detached from the prop, and 
used singly, if required. It is the only safe ladder 
against a tree. A common ladder must have four 
bearings ; and if either of these should give way, the 
ladder will turn over. A wide-based ladder needs 
only three bearings ; that is, it is as safe from turning 
over with one bearing above as with two. 



PT. I. 



OF TRANSPLANTING. 



7 



DESCRIPTION OF WATER-CASK. 

I have found the following sort of water-cask very 
useful ; either for common watering, or for the con- 
veyance of liquid manures :~ 

A pair of old gig-wheels, 4 feet in diameter. A 
3 6 -gallon cask, 32 inches high. Swing this cask 
between the wheels by two iron arms, 15 inches of the 
cask above the arms, 17 inches below them. Or the 
arms which pass through the boxes of the wheels may 
be attached to an iron circle large enough to receive 
the cask, which will rest on the circle by three 
supports. 

An iron handle to pass over the top of the cask, 
and sufficiently free from the cask to allow of its being 
tilted. The handle to take on and off the axle with a 
hook and screw. 

A pair of old gig-shafts to take on and off the 
handle. 

A leathern hose, with wire inside, at the lower part 
of the cask, just long enough, when turned over the 
cask, to reach the bottom of it on the other side. The 
hose to take on and off with a screw. A lid, opening 
with folding flaps, fastened by a bent hasp, which will 
pass over and secure the hose while in movement A 
couple of leathern buckets. A hook before and 
behind the cask, to carry the buckets. 

A wrought-iron bowl, to lade with. 



8 



PRACTICAL PART 



PT. 1. 



This cask may be used either by hand, or with a 
horse, or donkey. It may be locked going down hill, 
as recommended for ' the tree-lifter.' 

According to circumstances, or the power of 
approaching the tree, the hose or the buckets may be 
used, or the cask may be tilted. 



DIRECTIONS FOR PRACTICE. 

Choose a tree of from 20 to 30 feet in heiglit, with 
several leaders, or with some unduly large branches. 
Prune the tree previously to digging round it, so as to 
take from the head at least as much as will, in all 
probability^ be taken from the root, not by cutting in 
the head and branches of the tree, but by giving it a 
clear leader, and cutting out all branches large enough 
to compete with the stem, low enough to be reached 
by cattle, or the growth of which is upright or parallel 
to the stem. Cut all close to the stem. Dig a trench 
round the tree, at the distance of about 20 inches from 
it. Undermine the ball of earth, at the depth of about 
3 feet, so that every root may be cut previous to lifting 
it. Tie some old carpeting or matting round the stem 
of the tree. Place the machine, without the shafts, on 
the planks, and block the wheels ; the centre of the 
axle over the centre of the ball of earth, and the ring of 
the windlass rope at the foot of tlie tree. Place the 
chain with the round links horizontally, and loosely, 



PT. I. 



OF TRANSPLANTING. 



9 



round the lower part of the ball of earth, so that it lies 
on the ground in the pit. Cross the end held in the 
left hand twice over the end held in the right hand, 
and lay both ends down. Pass one of the other chains, 
as far as its middle, through the ring of the windlass 
rope. Pass the ends of this chain beneath the 
horizontal chain, and hook the ends back on the chain 
itself. Do the same with the four remaining chains. 
So that when the windlass is worked, these five vertical 
chains, being at equal distances from each other, shall 
bear an equal distress from the weight of the ball. 
Fasten the horizontal chain, by hooking it to any con- 
venient part of the vertical chains. Eaise the ball of 
earth with the windlass, and place the ring of the wind- 
lass rope on the hook attached to the axle. The ball 
of earth carried thus is pressed together by the chains 
acting towards one another, and the greater the weight 
the greater the inward pressure. A ball of earth resting 
on a sledge or truck soon shakes to pieces on the least 
movement, besides the difficulty and mischief done in 
lifting it on and ofi* the truck. 

The tree is lowered into the pit prepared for it with 
the same facility as it is raised. If it does not stand 
upright it is easily raised by the windlass, while earth 
is cast under where it is wanted. The unchaining is 
only reversing the enchaining. If during the carriage, 
owing to wet or the friability of the earth, the chains 
cut into the ball, and the load sinks, it is easy, by 
letting the load down altogether, to take up and tighten 
any one or every one of the chains. 



10 



PEACTICAL PART 



PT. 1. 



Place the upper surface of the ball of earth at 
precisely its former level, and do not cover it ; but 
raise a very slight ridge of earth round the outside of 
its circumference, so as to form a pan or irrigation cup. 
Tie some bushes round the stem to prevent cattle from 
rubbing it. The organisation of the bark is easily 
mechanically injured and destroyed by any bruise, or 
by cattle rubbing against it. It is the common error 
to believe that the bark is chemically poisoned by the 
oil from the skin of cattle. 

It may be found necessary to stay the sv^ay of the 
tree, while in movement, by ropes from the stem to the 
shafts. 

In going dov\rn steep hills the machine may be held 
back by a horse ridden behind, and hooked on by the 
South American surcingle and single trace ; or the 
machine may be very conveniently blocked by lashing 
a bar of wood across the shafts, close in front of the 
wheels, and taking out the screw which fastens the 
shafts to the axle. The horse will then bear back 
against the wheels instead of against the axle, and the 
Iriction against the wheels will increase or decrease 
directly as the downward impetus. 

This application of a common mode of blocking 
wheels has the advantage of being entirely self-acting. 
It needs neither the attention nor personal service of the 
driver ; nor is it left to his judgment at what time, or 
how much, or how little, to put on or to take off. 
Without any stoppage or trouble, friction is acquired 



PT. I. 



OF TRANSPLANTING. 



11 



at the exact time and in the exact quantity that is 
required^ and ceases of itself as the necessity for it 
ceases. 

The principle of locking two-wheeled carriages 
by creating friction on the wheels induces a shght 
downward pressure on the horse's back. But the long 
shafts act as a lever in the horse's favour, and the extra 
pressure on his back is not to be spoken of in com- 
parison with the labour of bearing back a loaded cart. 

That this is a fact any one may convince himselt 
practically, by taking the water-cart which I have 
described down a hill which is so steep that he could 
not hold the cart back without this mode of blocking 
the wheels. Might not this mode of blocking be 
applied to two-wheeled carts ? 



12 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II» 



PART IL 

THEORY OF TRANSPLANTING, OR PHYSIOLOGY OF 
TREES IN REFERENCE TO TRANSPLANTING. 



CHAPTEE I. 

THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED BY THE SURFACE 
OF THE ROOTS. 

Proportion The siipply tniist be equal to the demand ; if not, 
a trans- scarcitv will ensue. He who expects that a diminished 

planted ... 

^toot^^^^^ root will support an undiminished head will be dis- 
appointed. This is the fimdamental principle of 
transplanting. And in transplanting, the head must 
be curtailed exactly in proportion as you have to cur- 
tail the root. 

Prefatory Bcforc entering on physiology, I would say one 
entering on word to dcfcud mysclf from the charge of egotism and 

physiology 

of trees. plagiarism. When I mention Sir Humphry Davy, I 
may say that immortal names are among those who 
have written on the physiology of trees. Yet so much 
doubt and difference prevail among the authors on the 
subject, that one cannot adopt a single opinion without 
opposing many, held by minds, perhaps, as clear and 



CH. I. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



13 



comprehensive as Sir Hiimpliry's. It is, then, to save 
the reader's time if I lay down as certain what better 
men have doubted or controverted ; or if I use the 
words, ' I think this,' or ' I think that,' in stating other 
people's opinions. 

The sap is absorbed bv the roots.'* Its course The course 

oftheTrea- 

upward is throuo;h the whole of the wood, heart-wood tisewiiigo, 

^ ^ ' with the 

as well as sap-wood, of the root, the stem, and the theVoor 
branches. It thence passes through the insides of the theT^od 
leaves and buds, and returns through their outsides into and hack ' 

by the bark 

the bark, and descends again to the roots. From the to the root, 
ascending sap the growth in elongation of the stem 
and branches takes place ; and from the descending sap 
the growth in girthing of them, and also the growth in 
elongation of the roots. 

But I imagine that, besides this vertical or longitu- 
dinal flow of the sap between the roots and the 
branches, there is also a horizontal or transverse 
circulation between the heart- wood and bark ; and that 
the joint elaboration of these two saps is essential to the 
formation of the new annual growth in girthing. This 
consists of a new sheath of wood, deposited outside the 
last year's growth of wood, over the entire surface of 
the stem, branches, and roots ; and also of a new sheath 

* Even tMs first principle is quite contrary to the opinions 
of the mass of physiologists, ancient and modern. Priestley, 
Senebier, De Saussure, Liebig, &c., think the more head, the 
more root it will feed. I think the more root, the more head 
it will feed. 



14 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. 11. 



"With one 
exreptiorf, 
trees im- 
bibe from 
all parts 
exposed to 
moisture, 
and tran- 
spire from 
all parts 
exposed to 
drou«:bt. 



The food 
of trees im- 
bibed by 
the surface 
of roots. 



Food of 
agastric 
animals 
imbibed by 
the surface. 



Seeds im- 
bibe by 
the surface. 



of bark inside the last year's bark. These opinions, in 
this order, will be discussed in the following pages. 

With the exception stated below, trees imbibe from 
every part of them wdiich is exposed to moistm^e, and 
give off (transpire) from every part of them which is 
exposed to drought. The root is the part which is 
constantly exposed to moisture, and which furnishes 
the constant supply of sap to the tree. That part of 
the root which is universally believed to imbibe no 
moisture, the woody part, is the only part which does 
imbibe moisture ; and that part of the root which is 
universally believed to be the only part which does 
imbibe moisture, the unripe ends or fibres, is the only 
part which does not imbibe moisture. 

In fact, the mode in which food is first received 
into plants is the same as that in which it is received by 
what are called the agastric animals, or animals without 
stomachs, as some Medusas ; that is, by absorption from 
the surface. 

Let us first take the positive assertion that roots 
imbibe from any parts exposed to moisture ; and after- 
w^ards consider the negative, that they do not imbibe 
by the immature ends of the roots. 

Let us begin with the seed. The existence, and 
also the growth, of all seeds depend on the principle 
of absorption from the surface ; that is, all seeds both 
breathe and drink by absorption from the surface. If 
seeds are to exist, they must be supplied with atmo- 
spheric air. If they are to grow, they must be supplied 



cir. I. 



BY TPIE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



15 



with moisture. And tliey inhale the air for their 
existence, and imbibe the moisture for their growth, 
by absorption from the surface. 

We may regard the growth of ' mummy- wheat ' 
as an idle tale. Lyell informs us that, in an experi- 
ment at Kew Gardens, ' out of 100 seeds of wheat, 
barley, and lentils, from Mr. Sam's collection in the 
British Museum, not one of them would germinate ; ' 
and that a friend of his found occasional grains of 
maize (first imported from America) in several parcels 
of corn sold by the Arabs as coming from the cata- 
combs. Lyell does not, however, controvert the pos- 
sibility of the growth of seeds after an entombment 
of 3,000 years. And supposing the presence of atmo- 
spheric air, and the absence of moisture, sufficient to 
cause generation, we know^ no reason why they should 
not grow. But we do know that if seeds are deprived 
of atmospheric air, by being hermetically sealed, even 
for a few months, they die. 

Again, the existence and growth of cuttings which Cuttings 

imbibe bv 

have no root, old or young, prove absorption from the the surface, 
surface. 

In the hot climate and on the arid hill-sides of 
Spain the ohve is propagated by cuttings. These cut- 
tings are old branches 7 feet in length. One end of 
such a cutting is buried about 18 inches in a pit, and 
concrete earth or clay is raised, like a pillar, round it, 
so that, at the upper end, only about 8 or 10 inches 
of the cutting is exposed to the atmosphere. Thus 



16 THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED pt.- ii. 



excretion of moisture is prevented, and secretion of 
moisture takes place, throughout about 6 feet of the 
cutting. In the course of two or three years the piUar 
of earth is gradually taken away ; when a head has 
grown on a trunk 5 or 6 feet from the ground. 

From Pliny's description of the planting the elm 
in vineyards, and Seneca the Younger's description of 
planting the olive, I imagine the Spanish to be a lineal 
descendant of the Eoman method. Yirgil also alludes 
to this mode of cultivating the olive in the Second 
Book of the Georgics : — 

Quin et caudicibus sectis (mirabile dictu !) 
Trnditnr e sicco radix oleagina ligno. 

I have known cuttings of pinuses kept out of doors 
without heat, to live for two years, and even to make 
small shoots, without forming a symptom of a root. 
That these were fed for two years by the absorption 
of their wood from the earth, and not, as Priestley and 
Liebig would have it, by the absorption of their foliage 
from the air, is clear, — because, if cuttings are left 
without being placed in the earth, they die at once.* 

* All the vineyards of tbe Soutli bave, from time immemorial, 
been planted and replanted from cuttings, as our gooseberries and 
currants are. Witbout tbe intervention of new idJ ants generated 
from dormant seeds, tbe great majority of vines migbt doubtless 
tbus run tbeir pedigrees tbrougb sap wbicb bas never ceased to 
circulate up to tbe time and tbe plants of Baccbus. And tbus 
eacb plant may call itself tbe contemporary creation of tbe jolly 
god, as eacb olive may of Minerva. Tbis is very mucb at 
variance vpitb tbe absurd received notion tbat cuttings and 
scions partake of tbe age and decrepitude of tbe plants from 
wbicb tbey are taken. 



CH. I. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



17 



If a lono^ vine-branch is coiled round the inside of The coiled 

branch im 
bibes from 
the surface 



^ branch im- 

a flower-pot and covered with earth, as it is ten times ^ibes f.om 



as long below the earth as a common cutting, it will 
shoot with ten times as much vigour ; and if heat is 
given, it will bear fruit the first year. It will also Radishes 

imbibe by 

appear, from experiments which I shall detail, that if the surface, 
every root is cut or rubbed ofi' a radish, it will grow, 
either in water or in earth. Nay, if the bulb is cut in 
two, and the upper half planted, this rootless half-hvlh 
will grow. 

In the first growth of the seed, in the growth of 
cuttings and of coiled branches, and in the growth of 
the half-radishes, there must be absorption firom the 
surface without the aid of the small fibres or ends of 
roots, since no roots of any sort exist in any of these 
cases. 

Let us now consider the negative assertion, that The unripe 

ends of 

plants do not imbibe by the unripe ends of their roots. [,Xiie''"''' 
Take the end of a freely-growing root ; break or Formation 
nip the silver end across. An internal tube will be roots, 
found, distinct from the external tube. The difierence 
in the organisation of the internal tube from that of 
the outer one will be plainly seen by the naked eye, 
and very frequently a circle of cells or tubes round the 
outside of the inner main tube. These two main tubes 
are what an Englishman would like to call the outer 
and inner bark : but he must not think of doing so ; 
he must call the outer tube the cuticle or epidermis, 
and the inner tube the parenchymatous under-layer or 

c 



18 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II. 



herbaceous envelope. Or, at least, tliey are equivalents 
to what would bear these euphonious titles above 
ground. Continue to break off small pieces of the 
root. A third tube will be found, — a ligneous thread, 
ending in the finest point, and growing gradually 
thicker. The thread being comparatively tough, the 
outer coatings may be pulled off it for many inches. 
The internal thread is the wood, and is the conduit for 
the ascending sap which approaches nearest to the 
extremity of the root. The external coatings are the 
bark, and the inner bark is the conduit for the de- 
scending sap, and the means of the growth of the 
root, as well in elongation as in diameter. 
Ends of The silver ends of roots are, in fact, a mere pro- 

bark,which lonc^ation of the bark, without wood. Down the bark 

is the des- 

cendmg, all physiologists allow a descending current, but none 
conduit^"' allow an ascending current. I believe, indeed, that 
there is a power of absorption and of lateral transmis- 
sion of moisture across the bark into the wood, and 
that the layers of wood are the upward conduits for 
the sap. But if we suppose the possibility of the 
absorption of moisture by the immature and silver 
ends, we cannot suppose the possibility of its trans- 
mission upwards, where there is no wood, but only 
unripe bark in process of formation and deposition 
from above, which bark, even when ripe, is the descend- 
ing, not the ascending, conduit ; and though on extra- 
ordinary emergencies the sap may for a short distance 
flow up the downward conduits of the bark, it is rather 



CH. I. BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 19 



too mucli to suppose that, in the ordinary course of 
nature, the sap should perpetually flow both ways at 
once in the same channel. 

As this question is of vital importance in trans- Experi- 

^ ments m 

planting, I will state the results of several experiments 
in support of these opinions. To begin again with the nou?- 

seedling. In March, 1836, 1 made some horse-chestnut J-oote tm 

seeds grow in water, in my barrack-room, and found come^^ 

woody, but 

that when the root was cut off when it was several by the seed, 
inches long, the plant would still grow, and would 
continue to throw out fresh roots as fast as they were 
cut off. The existence of the plant was evidently 
independent of the root. The reason is, that unripe, 
that is un woody, roots are incapable either of absorb- 
ing or of transmitting sap ; but receive their own 
nourishment from above, — in this case, from the seed. 
Consequently, whenever I divided a plant from its 
seed, it died, though the root was perhaps twice the 
length of the plant, and though leaves were developed 
on the plant. Yet, when I allowed the seeds to remain 
attached to the plants till the roots had become woody, 
the plants grew in water for years. Moisture is taken 
up by absorption from the surface of the seed; the 
elaboration of the sap is entirely in the seed, and passes 
through the bands which unite it to the seedling, for 
the growth of the plant upward and of the root down- 
ward ; and the seedhng is entirely dependent on the 
seed for its life and for its growth till the roots have 
become woody. Still farther to prove this, I have 

c2 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II. 



placed horse-chestnut seedlings raised in water having 
roots about three inches long, with the tips and lower 
parts of the roots in a shallow saucer of water, and 
with the seeds and plants outside the saucer. Ml died 
and dried instantly. These, then, while alive, were 
supphed by absorption from the surface of the seed, 
and were not indebted to the immature roots, with 
their spongioles and capillary stomata. And where 
are the spongioles and capillary stomata which supply 
the surface of the seed ? 
Symmetri- Quc of thcsc experimental plants lived for nearly 

caZ growth ^ ^ 

horse-^ years in water, and was then only killed accident- 

chestnut. The first side-fibres or shoots which are developed 

on the roots of horse-chestnuts grown in water are 
regularly arranged in six vertical lines along the root. 
This is the only approach to symmetrical growth that 
I have ever remarked on the root of a tree. The side- 
fibres of the root come from the woody part of the 
main root, as branches do from the woody part of the 
stem ; and I imagine that, when side-fibres are first 
developed on the main root, this main root is first 
becoming sufficiently woody to absorb, and to feed 
itself and the plant, independently of the seed. 
Twin oaks. The two bands which unite the seedling to the 
seed pass one to each division (cotyledon) of the seed. 
I have known four divisions or cotyledons in an acorn. 
In this case twin plants arose. 

I know not how to question the roots of mature 
trees in reference to the absorption of their food by 



CH. r. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



21 



the ends ; though I think that the free growth of 
trees transplanted with the ball of earth answers it in 
the negative. So does the growth of potted green- 
house plants, all the ends of whose roots are cut off. 
But certainly the answers elicited from the roots of 
seedlings are most clear and most decisive, and directly 
in contradiction to the only fact I have ever heard 
stated in favour of the absorption by the ends of the 
roots. And this fact, I have no hesitation in asserting, That a 

radish is 

is not a fact. I give, in Eichard's words, what I believe ff^ only by 
Senebier first asserted : — fallacy. 

' Eoots also extract from the earth the substances 
which are intended to serve for the growth of the plant. 
But all parts of the root do not perform this office, it 
being only by the extremity of their smallest fibres 
that this absorption takes place. Some say that they 
are terminated by little ampullse, or spongy bodies, 
which are more or less tumid ; and others, by a kind 
of absorbing mouths. Whatever be their structure, it 
is certain that the office of absorption is performed by 
these extremities alone. 

' No experiment is more easily made than that by 
means of which the truth of this fact is undeniably 
established. If we take a radish or a turnip, and im- 
merse in water the extremity of the radicle by which 
it is terminated, it will vegetate and shoot forth leaves. 
On the contrary, if it be so placed in the water that 
its lower extremity is not immersed, it gives no sign 
of development.' 



22 THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED pt. ii. 



First, I think I may fairly ask why ' some ' say that 
each root ends in a sponge ? and why other some say, 
in a capillary stoma ? In either case have they seen 
the fact ? Have some seen one of these bodies at the 
end of a root ? and the other some, the other of these 
bodies there ? Or are these two bodies so precisely 
alike that one cannot be distinguished from the other ? 
To my eye, there is not much resemblance between a 
sponge and a capillary stoma ; and any one who agrees 
with me here will, I think, also agree that in no science 
except botany would this extraordinarily loose mode 
of st.ating facts be tolerated. These, however, are not 
the facts which I have at present to deal with ; but 
with the great fact asserted by all physiologists, which 
I have given in Eichard's words, — that a radish with its 
end only in water will live and grow ; with all but its 
end in water, will die. 

In physiology, as in many other things, we are apt 
to find — 

That witnesses like watches go, 
Just as they 're set, too fast or slow ; 

and certainly my testimony directly contradicts this 
Experi- double asscrtiou. I assert, that if the end only of the 

ments in p t i i i 

proof. main root of a radish newly taken up from the ground 
is placed in water, in a room, but out of the sun, even 
to the length of an inch, the radish and its leaves will 
instantly die ; precisely the same, that is just as quickly, 
as if no part of the plant were in water. On the 
other hand, if all the radish is placed in water except 



CH. I. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



23 



its leaves and the end of its main root, it will remain 
alive and continue to grow, even after the last inch of 
its main root is dead and dry. But the leaves will 
sometimes droop at first, unless they also have access to 
the water by their foot- stalks. Eadishes have many 
side-roots (a new fact, perhaps, to most physiological 
writers)^ and I have found these results to be the 
same, whether the side-roots are taken off or left on, 
and whether the end of the main root is left in the 
water or out of it ; or whether the end of the main 
root is cut off or left on the plant, or if the lower half 
of the radish is cut off, or if it is cut off within half an 
inch of the neck. When radishes have once been well 
saturated with water, they will remain alive for a long 
time under any circumstances. 

If a radish is placed in a narrow-necked bottle, 
such as an eau de Cologne bottle, the absorption of water 
is very apparent by the decrease of water in the neck 
of the bottle. If the bottle is kept fiUed, so as to give 
all the radish the power of absorbing laterally, the 
radish will live. If the bottle is not kept filled, the 
radish will fade as the level of the water sinks to the 
immature parts of the radish. 

On the 13th of April, 1850, I instituted three 
experiments similar to these ; but in earth instead of 
water. The results were equally favourable to the 
position that the absorption of nutriment by roots is 
through the medium of their mature parts, and not 
through the medium of their immature ends. 



24 



THE FOOD OF TKEES IS IMBIBED 



TT. 11. 



No. 1. From a ridge-bed, covered with matting at 
night, in which early potatoes and radishes were 
growing, I took half a dozen radishes, rubbed off all the 
side-roots, and laid them sideways in the earth, in a 
flower-pot, with their heads out of the earth, and their 
immature white end-roots in the air, over the side of 
the flower-pot. All grew. 

No. 2. Of another half-dozen, I cut the red bulbs 
across the middle, rubbed the side-rootlets off the 
upper halves, and planted them in a flow^er-pot. All 
grew. 

No. 3. I tied half a dozen others to sticks, so that 
their heads and red bulbs were in the air, and their 
immature white roots buried about two inches in the 
earth. All died. 

It is true that each experiment, for the first week, 
flagged with every warm g learn 

Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro 
Languescit moriens ; 

and this flagging took place in celerity and intensity 
mversely as I have numbered the experiments. But 
they revived with every shower, and this in celerity 
and perfection directly as their numbers. Some plants 
even of No. 3 recovered their drooping partially after 
showers for the first few days. But this, I think, only 
goes to prove the position with which I started in the 
first edition of this treatise, that vegetables imbibe 
from all mature parts which are exposed to moisture, 



CH. I. BY TPIE SUEFACE OF THE ROOTS. 25 

and excrete from all parts which are exposed to 
drought. 

The radishes had been grown in very light mould, 
so that, by passing the fingers into it in taking the 
radishes up, I beheve not a rootlet, main or lateral, was 
broken. The whole of the roots were left on No. 3, 
and much earth adhering to the side-roots of some. 
The weather was very favourable for the first week, the 
wind south or south-west, the thermometer about tem- 
perate, with constant heavy showers. For this reason, 
none of the experiments were watered for the first 
fortnight. On the 21st the wind got to the north, and 
the weather was sunny and dry. But, ere this, nearly 
all No. 3 were defunct. On the 29th, after a week's 
drought, some of the leaves of Nos. 1 and 2 looking 
flagging, the experiments were all watered. Care was 
taken that the water should only fall on the earth, 
without touching a leaf, in order to make certain that 
the revival (which took place) was caused solely by the 
absorption of moisture by the rootless bulbs — nay, in 
the case of No. 2, by the rootless HALF-bulbs. 

On the 28th of May, when the experiments were 
between six and seven weeks old, I turned No. 1 and 
No. 2 into the open ground. On taking off the pots I 
found the roots in both cases matted round the balls of 
earth, and they had grown through the holes of the 
flower-pots. Can it be supposed that these long roots 
are useful to their plants only by their ends ? Can it be 
supposed that the grand systems of roots of forest-trees 



26 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. ir. 



are useful as absorbents only at their ends ? If so, 
would these magnificent conduits of the upward sap, or 
could they, enlarge directly as their distance from their 
petty supply ? I think the reverse of all this is the 
case : that the root absorbs laterally from the whole of 
its mature length. 

^o. 4. On the 7th of June, 1850, I took half a 
dozen radishes grown in an open bed, which the 
gardeners were pulling up because too large and too 
old for use ; I cut off the lower halves of the bulbs, 
rubbed off the side-rootlets, and transplanted the upper 
half-bulbs to an open bed under a south wall, taking 
the precaution to diminish their heads by cutting off 
nearly all their large leaves. The stalk of one had 
grown up about three inches. For the three succeeding 
days the thermometer on the wall rose above 90°, on 
the fourth day above 100°. The plants were watered 
each day, but not sheltered from the sun. All grew. 
By midsummer, and after that, the thermometer fre- 
quently stood at 84° in the shade, and 111° in the sun, 
on the wall under which Nos. 1,2, and 4 were growing. 
Not a leaf of either tiagged. There were by this time 
flowers on the tops of the stalks in all three experi- 
ments : and in the autumn all bore seed most profusely, 
much of which ripened. 
That First comes the unsound datum, then follows the 

b r 3,11 c b. G s 

are the unsound theory. Eoget remarks, in reference to roots, 

same ■ ^ ^ 

length as that ' as a constant relation is preserved between their 

roots a 

tharthe^"^ lateral extension and the horizontal spreading of the 



CH. I. 



BY THE SUKFACE OF THE KOOTS. 



27 



the ends of 
roots a 
fallacy. 



branches, the greater part of the rain which falls upon ends of 

branches 

the tree is made to drop from the leaves at the exact Jrip on to 

^ the ( 

distance from the trunk where, after it has soaked J'^'^^''' 
through the earth, it will be received by the extremities 
of the roots, and readily sucked in by the spongioles.' 
This is the notion of indoor bookish theorists. I forget 
who first made the observation, but, as it is repeated 
by almost all writers on vegetable physiology, it 
deserves notice. Both the facts here supposed may be 
considered as vulgar errors. That is, in general, the Branches 

shorter 

horizontal extension of the roots will be found far to than roots, 

and the 

exceed that of the branches ; and so far from its being fhlmxgh 
true that less water falls under the head of a tree than LtSi^^* 
outside it, there is every reason to believe that more 
falls there. 

In reference to the comparative length of the roots 
and branches, there is doubtless gTcat difference in 
different trees. But generally it is probable that the 
aggregate bulk of timber in the root is equal to that of 
the trunk and head ; and as the roots creep along the Yorm of 
surface of the earth, they form a flat circle like a flat d?cie 

like a 

wheel round a single tree, instead of a spherical circle ^^eei : 

^ ' ^ form of the 

like a ball as the head does. Consequently, the roots ^i^^^^^^ 
make up by their horizontal length for their want of a blu.^^^^ 
opportunity to shoot perpendicularly either upward or 
downward. Those who will not trouble themselves to 
dig for this truth, may see it in trees which are apt to 
throw up suckers, such as the elm or aspen. Suckers 
may be seen from these at four, or perhaps T might say 



28 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II. 



at eight or ten, times tlie distance of the length of the 
branches from the trunk ; and were we to imagine that 
part of the head of a tree which is above the lowest tier of 
branches taken off, and added to the ends of the lowest 
tier, so as to form a circle in one plane like a wheel, 
instead of a spherical circle like a ball, we should not 
Jiave a bad idea of the general shape of the root, both 
in form and extent of circumference. Consequently, 
the extremities of the roots, with their supposed spon- 
gioles, are very far removed from the supposed drip 
from the outside of the head of a tree. 

But in reference to this drip round the outside of 
the heads of trees, the phenomenon may be seen from 
umbrellas and roofs. But trees are neither umbrellas 
nor roofs, as those who take shelter under them will find. 
As long as their leaves and branches can absorb or hold 
on their surface the mass which falls, they will afford 
shelter. But after that the rain will not trickle outside 
the circle, but perpendicularly through every part of 
the head. Thus much for what takes place when the 
trees are in leaf For six or seven months, however, 
they are without leaves. And in the spring they are 
without them, at the particular time when the great 
upward supply is required for the very formation of 
the leafy canopy which is supposed to supply the sup- 
The head poscd circlc of spougiolcs. This leafy canopy, far from 

robs the . , . , . ' 

root of a supplying the circle around it and below it with rain^ 

little rain, ri J & ^ ) 

but more -^q]^^ Qf much as is absorbcd by the leaves, or as is 

than repays ' 

demation!"' evaporated from their surface. But this robbery is 



CB. r. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



29 



much more than compensated by tlie condejisation which 
takes place whenever the atmosphere is moist and 
warmer than the trees. For this fact I shall quote the 
admirable outdoor observer, White of Selborne : ' In 
heavy fogs, on elevated situations especially, trees are 
perfect alembics ; and no one who has not attended 
to such matters can imagine how much water one tree 
will distil in a night's time, by condensing the vapour 
which trickles doAvu the twigs and boughs, so as to 
make the ground below quite in a float. In Newton 
Lane, in October, 1775, on a misty day, a particular 
oak, in leaf, dropped so fast that the cart-way stood in 
puddles, and the ruts ran with water, though the 
ground in general was dusty.' And that part of a 
road which is overshadowed by a tree may, in summer, 
play the part of Gideon's fleece. In rain, it may be dry 
and dusty, when all beyond it is moist ; and, in con- 
densing weather, it may be drenched, when all beyond 
it is dry and dusty. This condensation much more than 
makes up for the small quantity of rain-water which is 
arrested by the leaves. 

Roget remarks : 'We have here a striking instance 
of that beautiful correspondence which has been 
established between processes belonging to diflerent 
departments of nature, and which are made to concur 
in the production of remote efiects, that could never 
have been accomplished without these preconcerted 
and harmonious adjustments,' Fine words, certainly 1 
but prceterea nihil. 



30 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II. 



It is indeed possible, nay probable, that Almighty 
wisdom has designed an additional supply of water to 
the roots of the noblest of his vegetable works. But, 
granting this to be so, we are not to look for the hand 
of the Creator in an imaginary water-shed, from the 
outside of the head of the tree, on to an imaginary 
circle of spongioles, which, if they existed there, would 
probably absorb no water ; but in the provision of an 
apparatus for condensing the watery vapour of the air, 
and for shedding it, through the whole head of the 
tree, on to the woody and really absorbing part of the 
root. 

That this water-shed takes place, Eoget may con- 
vince himself oculis fidelihus. For rain and condensa- 
tion only fall from leaves or boughs after they have 
accumulated into much larger drops than those which 
fall as rain. And where trees overhang roads, these 
large drops, by the force of im])act, eject the fine sand, 
and leave a surface of rough stones beneath the whole 
circle of the head of the tree, not merely round the 
outside of it. This fact may be seen. 

Where branches form elbows, pointing downward, 
the dropping will sometimes almost amount to a stream, 
and will form a conspicuous mark on the road. Where 
boughs are horizontal, each drop falls perpendicularly, 
as soon as gravity overcomes cohesion ; that is, as soon 
as the force of its weight is greater than its power of 
sticking to the bough. But not a drop of rain falls 
under trees in its natural form and size. In many 



CH. I. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



31 



cases accumulation goes on till the Aveiglit of water can 
bend the leaf to discharge its contents. 

Leaves are not fitted on to each other like tiles or Rain and 

condensa- 

slates on a roof ; and it is impossible that the ivater-shed gj^^JJ^^/^^'' 
of trees should be outward or from the stem, because ^^^^^^l^^ 
the continuity of the outward channel is interrupted at 
the outward end of every individual leaf. But it is by 
no means impossible that the water-shed should be 
inward or towards the stem. And this, the very reverse 
of Eoget's fact, sometimes is the fact. Where leaves 
incline upward from the twigs, the twigs upward from 
the branches, and the branches upward from the stem, 
in rainy or condensing weather almost every drop of 
water is shed towards and down the stem ; and the 
stem of a tree stands the model of a river, rich in the 
supply of water directly as the number and size of its 
branches. 

This streaming of the stem may be observed in 
all trees, but differing in quantity as infinitely as the 
direction of the growth of their branches and twigs may 
differ. It is most remarkable and most profuse in 
Lombardy poplars. To tliis day they may be seen 
deluged in tears for the fate of their rash and hapless 
brother : 

Quam platanus vino tam gandet popiilus unda.* 

* In reference to Ovid's physiology of the plane, Macrobins 
writes : ' Is Hortensius platanos suas vino irrigare consuevit : 
adeo ut in actione quadam, quam habnit cum Cicerone susceptam, 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II. 



But how, by Eoget's and the received system, shall 
these slim sisters of Phaeton drink their own tears? 
Their capillary stomata (since the jargon of science 
will mingle ' verbis Grasca Latinis ') are at the distance 
of the vertical height of the trees from their stems, 
instead of the horizontal width of the branches. This 
may be seen from suckers. And how is the poor oak 
to enjoy the drip from his own wide-spread branches, 
when its single capillary stoma is buried, perhaps, .a 
hundred feet directly imder the centre of its stem ? 

Owing to condensation, the ground underneath the 
head of a tree is much more watered than that outside 
it ; and, besides this, it escapes the great evaporation of 
the summer drought and heat. For when the rays 
' nimium propinqui solis ' are the hottest, its canopy of 
leaves is the densest. 
Argument The editor of the ' Gardener's Chronicle ' thinks 

from the 

'Gardener's that roots absorb only by their ends, because gardeners 

Chronicle' ^ *^ 'to 

considered. (-||g niauure in only round the outside of the semicircle 
of the roots of their fruit-trees, without perceiving that 
the fact cuts against his own argument. If they were 
to dig it in nearer the stem their spade would destroy 
the really absorbent part of the root, the woody part ; 
and, as ' omne majus continet in se minus,' they would 
also destroy the much- valued spongioles. By digging 
round the outside, they destroy little more than the 

precario a Tullio postulasset, ut locum dicendi permutaret secnm : 
abire enim in villain necessario se velle, nt vinum platano, quam 
in Tusculano posuerat, ipse snffanderet.' 



CH. I. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



33 



then useless silver ends'. These are instantly replaced, 
shoot freely through the loosened earth and manure, 
soon become woody, and absorb the chemically nutri- 
tious juices aud gases evolved by the manure. Trees 
which require forcing should be top-dressed and 
irrigated either with water or liquid manure over all 
their roots, but manure should be only dug in outside 
their extremities. 

But the spade actually is the great unknown Thej^pade 
destroyer of our wall-fruit trees. On a practical post- ^^ji!}^^-^ 
mortem examination and inquest on them, the gardener 
finds that the only remains of roots are in the bad lower 
soil. And his verdict, instead of tree -slaughter against 
himself, is felo de se ; that is, died because the roots 
would strike too low. But he omits to observe the 
reason of this, which is, that the spade has destroyed 
every upper rootlet as it was made. ' Agrum pessimum 
mulctari cujus dominus audit non ostendit vilhcum ;' 
and I wish that the editor of the ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 
instead of quoting these misdeeds as authority, would 
correct them as errors, — would say to the man of 
practice, 'Don't dig so deep,' — and inform him that 
the roots of his trees would be happy to revel in the 
upper soil, if his spade would let them. 

Some trees have a tendency to form buds and to 
shoot wherever stem, branch, or root is wounded. This 
tendency in the horse-chestnut is so strong, that I think 
it might be inoculated for branches Avherever they 
were wished for. The wounds made by the spade are 



34 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT. II. 



a frequent source of suckers from tlie roots of fruit- 
trees, and the careless or ignorant gardener will sliow 
a fine bed of suckers with a dead trained fruit-tree. 

The only remedies to this suicidal diving propensity 
of the roots of fruit-trees, which science has as yet 
suggested, are to plant them on mounds, or on layers of 
tiles ! ! This is as bad as to order the canal to be dug 
deeper where it ran over the side ! Eoots, by nature, 
have so strong a propensity to keep the surface, that 
they may be observed, after diving from the wall to a 
grass-walk, to rise so completely above it as to be 
injured by the scythe, or by the hob-nailed hoof of the 
clod who has condemned them as divers, and who, 
when they emerge from the protection of the grass - 
walk, again forces them to take a header out of reach 
of his spade. But if the practice of the gardener is to 
be law, what does he do with the ends of the roots 
when he pots his plants ? He ruthlessly cuts them all 
off smack and smooth ! And, in this case, if he 
diminished their heads, his plants would not droop as 
they do, and as my plants do not. 

Yet however false in reason and theory, practically 
the planting fruit-trees in the garden on mounds is of 
inappreciable advantage. For the fool who has raised 
the mound will not be fool enough to dig it down again, 
and so that part of the root which is of most value to 
the tree, the woody part, is fenced from the spade. 

Planting forest-trees on mounds has, probably, 
arisen from the malpractice of the garden. The system 



CH. r. 



BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



35 



is bad. It makes the roots of the young plant more 
accessible to drought, and less accessible to watering ; 
while the roots of the older plant, when unfenced, are 
entirely denuded by cattle treading away the earth, 
and suffer both from crnawinty and treadino;. Trees 
should be planted at the exact level which their roots 
are afterwards to pursue, and a pan made round them 
by a slightly raised rim. This saves time and water in 
irrigating them, while it prevents overflows from with- 
out, to which the cup system is liable. 

The roots of a wall-fruit tree form a horizontal semi- 
circular fan, as the head forms a vertical semicircular 
fan ; the roots being kept up by the bad soil, and kept 
down by the action of the spade. And on account of 
the lateral upward growth of roots, alluded to in another 
place, the older the fruit-tree the less deeply the spade 
should go over its roots. 

This is a long story ; perhaps I ought to say That roots 

_ ^ absorb only 

dio^ression. But I cannot pass over the belief in the by sponges 

^ i- or capillary 

spongioles and cajnllary stomata at the ends of roots, theTrtSdfa 
and that the food of plants is solely absorbed by them, ^^uigaf'' 
as one of those speculative theories and pretty notions 
which our marvel-mongering nature is so prone to adopt, 
and so loth to part with. The notion pretends to the 
authority of practice, and to stand on experiment and 
facts. It is not a vulgar vulgar error, but a scientific 
vulgar error ; and should the man of common sense 
reproach me that I have wasted much time to prove 
what we need no ghost to tell us, my excuse is, that 

D 2 



36 



THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED 



PT, II. 



Whether 
. this is true 
or not of 
vital im- 
portance 
to trans- 
planting. 



Ends of 
roots to a 
tree what 
children 
are to a . 
common- 
wealth. 



men of uncommon sense (I think, Senebier first) have 
repeated these supposed facts one after the other, till 
they have become acknowledged data, which vitiate 
our physiological theories at their earliest source, in 
regard to the first absorption of food by plants. 

Thus much in regard to vegetable physiology in 
general. In regard to transplanting in particular, the 
truth or falsehood of this fact is of every importance ; 
since, if the life or death of a radish depended on the 
extremity of its root, an argument might be drawn that 
the life of other plants might depend on the extremities 
of theirs. But when we find this assertion to be totally 
devoid of foundation, — when we find the radish, 
deprived of all the immature parts of its root, absorbing 
nourishment for itself till it has replaced all its mutila- 
tions of head and heel, — we shall have the less horror of 
depriving our transplanted trees of their rootlets by 
simple excision ; and we shall be the less apt to waste 
labour in taking up long contused roots (from this 
cause, almost sure to die) in, after all, the impossible 
attempt to get at the terminating ideal spongioles or 
capillary stomata^ which are names as handsome as 
mingled Greek and Latin can make them, but vox et 
prceterea nihil. 

As long as the root is unripe, — -in other words, 
unwoody, — it is wholly useless ; that is, it has no up- 
ward conduit for the sap. The small fibres of the root 
bear the same relation to a tree as children to a 
commonwealth. So far from being a present source of 



CH. I. 



BY THE SUEFACE OF THE ROOTS. 



37 



strengtli they are an actual expense and outgoing ; 
though, by their growth and maturity, — that is, when 
the unripe fibres become woody roots, and the children 
become men,— they are the very springs of vital 
energy. 



38 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



CHAPTEE II. 

COUESE OF THE SAP FROM THE ROOT TO THE LEAF^ 
AND BACK TO THE ROOT. 

Coui'seof But, however mucli we may dispute on how tlie sap 

the upward j i i. 

th? whole ^ g^^^ i^^^ ^^^^ ivee^ we shall all agree that it does get in 
of the wood. gQj-jrigj^Q^y . and, but for Dr. Lindley, I believe we should 
all agree on the course which it then takes. 

The upward course of the sap is through the whole 
woody part of the roots, stem, and branches of the tree. 
This woody part has been hitherto divided by physiolo- 
gists into two parts, the heart- wood or dead w^ood ; and 
the alburnum or sap-wood ; that is, the unripe and out- 
side rings, or latest deposits of wood around the stem. 
It was considered that the heart- wood really was dead 
wood, and that the upward course of the sap was 
through the alburnum, or sap-wood, or latest rings of 
wood only. In March, 1832, I remarked the stems of 
some birch-trees, which I had cut down in the previous 
November, bleeding from the heart-wood. I was not 
then aw^are that Coulon had about this time observed 
the same thing in cutting down some poplar-trees in 
France. I afterwards satisfied myself, in various ways, 



CH. II. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



39 



that the whole of the wood is the conduit for the 

upward course of the sap. 

In April, 1832,1 found a birch-tree in Dyrrham The up- 
ward sap 

Park, of from 60 to 70 years' growth, which had a f^rough 
large scar from injuries from cart-wheels. The scar wo^oar"^" 
might have existed from 15 to 30 years, being perfectly periment.^' 
indurated, and in parts turned to touchwood. I tapped 
the scar in the centre with a very large gimlet. I had 
not pierced an inch before it ran freely wdiile boring. 
I bored about 3 inches in depth. The tree was 
about 9 inches through, in the direction of the bore. 
The dead surface-wood was perhaps a little more than 
a quarter of an inch in depth. The dropping w^as so 
frequent as almost to amount to a stream. This could 
only have flowed from the heart-wood, since no 
alburnum, or new wood, had been deposited on the 
scar for about twenty years. 

It is stated that Coulon accidentally observed the 
sap flowing in ^the heart-wood, in felling some poplar- 
trees, as I believe, about 1830. His farther proof of 
boring with an auger, in my opinion, goes for nothing. 
As the auger must have pierced the sap-wood as well as 
the heart-wood, who shall say whether the stream which 
followed came from the sap-wood, or from the heart- 
wood, or from both, or how much from each? If, 
according to MM. Coulon, Desfontaines, and Thouin, it 
came from the heart-wood alone^ the experiment would 
prove too much. It w^ould prove that the sap-wood is 
not a conduit for the sap. This is not only nonsense, 
but undoubted nonsense. 



COUKSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



The tip- Or if any one does doubt tliat sap-wood conducts 

•u-ard sap 

flows tlie sap, let him look at the case of plashed hedojerows ; 

througn ^ i o ^ 

wood; proof where the entire heart-wood and pith are cut through, 
ampiV and a strip of sap-wood left no thicker than a lath : yet 
this thin conduit supplies sap to long thick branches 
sufficient to enable them to live and to grow perma- 
nently. I do not allude to layers laid sideways in the 
earth, but to plashers laid sideways in the air, as in 
hedges. 

People have indeed always doubted, and some still 
do doubt, whether the heart-wood is a conduit to the 
sap ; among others Dr. Lindley, in 1849 (nineteen years 
after Coulon's discovery), sticks to this old error. He 
says : ' When the tissue of the concentric layers is filled 
with secretions, it ceases to perform any vital functions. 
The dead and fully formed central layers are called 
heart- wood.' 

The Doctor is not the first of physiologists, but he 
is the first of them who has told us the reason of the 
death of the heart-wood. It chokes itself with its 
own secretions. Yet, tliough the heart-Avood has no 
longer room for the upward sap, it is not so choke-full 
but what, by-and-by, we shall find the Doctor forcing 
it to swallow the downward sap. 

In fact, both the heart-wood and the sap-wood are 
conduits for the upward sap. To convince us that this 
is so, we want nothing further than these two proofs 
adduced by myself : that is, the boring through an old 
scar into the heart- wood of a birch proves, by the 



en. II. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



41 



stream whicli follows, that the heart-wood is a conduit 
for the sap ; and the existence of plasliers proves that 
the sap-wood is a conduit for the sap. How I wish 
that Dr. Lindley would allow us this one bit of un- 
doubtful ground in vegetable physiology to catch our 
breath on ! 

Certainly, in respect to first getting the sap into the By what 

Tn G cll ti HI C cl 1 

tree, we have had doubt and difficulty enough. Now f^^^^p^^fj^j-^j 
for the next doubt and difficulty. Now for getting the ^ap raised? 
sap u]3 the tree. I was going to say, that no one has 
an idea of the cause, and laws, and mechanism by 
which the sap is forced up. But there I should be 
wrong. Every one has his own idea, and every one's 
idea differs from that of his neighbour. To show on 
what extraordinarily loose ground these ideas stand, I 
will quote two countenanced by perhaps the keenest 
intellect that ever wrote on the subject. Sir Humphry 
Davy thought that one cause of the ascent of the sap 
was the motion caused in trees by wind ; that another 
cause was the contraction and expansion of the wood 
from alternation of heat and cold. Look into the hot- 
house and the hot-bed. In these neither of these 
causes exists. Not a breath of wind enters ; nor is any 
alternation of heat and cold allowed. Yet in these the 
ascent of the sap is freest. And if we look 'out of 
doors, I should say that the sap would be a slow 
traveller if its ascent depended on wind and cold. 
Here, then, I cannot back the favourite, and have a sort 
of blind leaning for Turgescence^ or Swelling. A dark 



42 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. n. 



horse, certainly ! and I am all in the dark about him 
myself. 

Perhaps the largest blocks of stone ever quarried 
by man (I do not except Pompey's Pillar for length) 
are from the granite quarries in Finland. One mode 
of rending these from their beds was to drill holes 
along their sides, and to fill these holes with water in a 
frost. Here ' weak water ' splits the hardest substance 
by turgescence, or swelling, without a star on its frozen 
column. This plan was changed to plugging the holes 
with dry wood, and wetting these plugs simultaneously. 
Here, again, the mysterious and marvellous power of 
turgescence performs its Herculean task with apparently 
very weak implements. A spoonful of water and a 
email bolt of wood form the blood and frame of a giant 
who, give him fingerhold, makes a joke of Milo. He 
changes his name sometimes, though. When he acts 
on ice, I should have called him dilatation. When he 
acts by heat, his name is expansion. And to him is 
confided the growth of geological vegetation. His endo- 
gens are the Alps, the Himalaya, and the Andes ; his 
exogens Vesuvius, Etna, and Madeira. Who shall 
guess from what depths within the earth these last 
receive their red-hot sap ? But even to raise it after 
leaving the earth, through the pressure of the Atlantic, 
perhaps some 30,000 feet, is not a bad squirt. We 
have then, in the roots and stem, wood and moisture, 
the implements of turgescence, — a force unhmite.d in 
power. How to describe the steps by which it is to 



cn. n. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



raise the sap a hundred feet, I confess I do not see. 
But I guess that some day it will be seen that tur- 
gescence, acting on living organisation, is the main 
mechanical power m the ascent of the sap. Cut a tree, 
indeed, or grub it if you please, and place it on its 
roots in a pond, and turgescence will by no means send 
the water up the dead wood. On the contrary, all but 
the immersed end of the tree, and its immediate 
neighbourhood, will dry as if it were m the timber-yard. 
This is as far as my horse Turgescence will carry me, 
which is not very far. And I end as I began — we are 
all in the dark about it ! 

According to an experiment of Hales, which has 
been since verified by others, the sap rises with a force 
sufficient to support the pressure of a column of water 
of double the height which would burst an ordinary 
hogshead cask. And w^e see that it ascends to pro- 
digious heights, yet we are ignorant how or by what 
agency. 

We see also the miraculous and universal system of where is 

the sap 

transubstantiation with which we are surrounded in the elaborated? 

W hence 

vegetable world, yet we are not only ignorant of the g^-o^X in 
chemistry which produces this transubstantiation — depositfd? 
which, from absorbed moisture and gases, forms the 
immense variety and tlie immense quantity of all ' the 
proper juices ' and ' peculiar acids ' of all the various 
woods, bark, leaves, flowers, scents, fruits, seeds, &c., of 
that most exquisite kingdom, — but w^e are even ignorant 
in what part of the plant the elaboration takes place. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. n. 



Sap sup- 
posed to be 
elaborated 
in the leaf. 



Growth in 

girthing 

supposed 

to be 

deposited 

from this 

elaborated 

gap in 

returning 

doAvn the 

bark. 



First office 
of the leaf, 
transpira- 
tion and 
excretion. 



or from what part of the plant the new growth is 
deposited. 

After the ascent of the sap, it is siqjposed to be 
elaborated in the leaf. It passes from the wood into 
the woody fibrous > or stalky, parts of the leaf ; thence 
into their spongy, porous (parenchymatous) parts ; and 
thence backwards into the green inner bark of the 
shoot, which is called ' the herbaceous envelope.' So 
that the leaves and buds may be considered as the con- 
duits, connecting the upward with the downward 
current of the sap. In descending through the bark, 
the elaborated sap is supposed to deposit the annual 
ring of the new wood (alburnum), and the annual ring 
of new bark (the new cortical layer) (both at once? 
or which first ?), round the branches, stem, and roots, 
and also to furnish the new growth of the roots in 
lensfth. 

Whether any chemical change or elaboration of the 
sap really does take place in the leaf, greater than in 
any other part of the tree, I shall not question ; but I 
think that possibly one chief duty of the leaf is to give 
olf the supernumerary watery parts necessary to take 
up from the soil and conduct to their destination the 
carbonic acid, ammonia, and inorganic matters requisite 
for vegetable life, and that it exhales the unnecessary 
gases, &c., after the decomposition of the constituents 
absorbed from the soil. And is not the great accumu- 
lation of ash, or incombustible or inorganic matter, 
found in the leaf, as compared with that found in the 



CH. TI. 



COURSE OF TITE SAP. 



45 



wood, an cargumeiit that the leaf is the organ of excre- 
tion ? The quantity of ashes or inorganic matter left 
by the leaves when burnt is perhaps from twelve hun- 
dred to two thousand per cent, greater than is left by 
the wood ; that is, it is from twelve to twenty times as 
much. And it is possibly on this account that these 
organs of excretion are themselves excreted. The 
division of trees into deciduous and non-deciduous is 
not strictly correct. All are deciduous ; that is, all de- 
foliate or lose their leaves — those which we call 
deciduous generally in about six months, those which 
we call evergreens generally in about twelve months. 
Evergreen trees, however, differ in time, but each has 
its fixed period for defohation. 

Certainly the transpiration or giving off of water 
from the leaf, when exposed to drought, is very rapid, 
and the communication from the root to the leaf very 
rapid and constant ; since on felling trees of thirty or 
forty feet high, while they were shooting in the summer, 
I have observed the shoots lose their turgescence ; that 
is, droop, in the course of a few minutes from the time 
that the stem is divided from the root. The accurate 
and admirable Hales found that a sunflower, in dry, 
hot w^eather, gave off two pounds and a half, that is, 
two pints and a half, of water in twelve hours. At 
night, and in moist weather, the quantity was much 
less. Senebier supposes that plants give off two-thirds 
of the water which they absorb. 

Many physiologists imagine that the great use of the pogg^^J^P^ 



46 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. ir. 



some to leaf is to absorb moisture. M. Bonnet tells us that the 

absorb the 

plants! ^^^^ formed to absorb, chiefly from the lower part, 
because dew ascends. But as dew is a condensation of 
moisture which is suspended in the atmosphere, it can- 
not be said to ascend more than to descend ; and the 
physiologist forgets that rain descends. But I do not 
think that M. Bonnet's facts are more to be depended 
on than his reasoning. He states that if leaves are 
floated on water on their upper surfaces, they will die 
as soon as if they were not put in water, but if they are 
floated on their lower surfaces they will remain alive 
as long as if their stalks were immersed in water. I 
tried this experiment in 1836, and found that the 
leaves floated on their upper surfaces remained alive as 
long, or rather longer, than those on their low^er sur- 
faces ; one remained in part alive for six weeks. But 
the fact that detached leaves or branches placed on 
water, but with the ends of their stalks out, will remain 
alive much longer than if suspended in the air, proves 
lateral absorption. And on this assumption the wetted 
hay-band is placed round the stem of trees packed for 
long journeys. 

Errors of I havc ouly had opportunity of seeing these theories 

Liebig. 

of M. Bonnet quoted. According to this class of phy- 
siologists, of which the great chemist Liebig is the 
modern oracle, when trees are in full leaf they receive 
their entire nutriment through their leaves from the 
atmosphere, and ' the complete dryness of the soil ' 
would not then injure them. If this were so, if a 



cn. rr. 



<:jourse op the sap. 



47 



branch were cut in full leaf, and suspended from those 
among which it grew, it should remain alive till the fall 
of the leaf ; or when trees were cut down at midsum- 
mer, till the fall of the leaf the heads would remain 
alive, and the roots would immediately die. The 
reverse of this is the case ; the roots remain alive, and 
shoot out without any assistance from the atmosphere, 
and the heads immediately die. 

If leaves are picked, they will die sooner than if 
the bough is cut on which they stand ; if the bough is 
cut, they will fade sooner than if the stem is cut on 
which the bough stands ; and if the stem is cut, they 
will fade sooner than if the tree is grubbed. All this 
shows that the leaf is fed from the stem, and contra- 
dicts Liebig's notion, that leaves feed themselves and 
their parent trees from the atmosphere. 

Cut a branch in a hot sun in June or July. In 
a few minutes its leaves will fade, dry, and shrivel. 
What keeps their living brethren fresh and succulent 
through the fifteen hours' drought and heat of our 
midsummer sun ? A constant supply of sap from the 
roots. If, indeed, a drought in summer or autumn is 
continued so long as to deprive the roots of moisture, 
the leaves will begin to fade ; but the leaves will 
recover immediately, if the roots only are watered. 
Doubtless, if the leaves also are watered, and wetted 
hay-bands applied to the stems, it will expedite matters. 
For doubtless plants absorb from all parts which are 
exposed to moisture, and excrete, that is, transpire, or 



48 



COUESE OF THE SAP. 



PT. ir. 



give off water, from all parts wliicli are exposed to 
drought. 

Liebig tells us that leaves, twigs, and branches, 
when completely matured, as they do not become 
larger, do not need food for their support.' Why, 
then, do they droop when the supply is cut off, and 
revive when the roots only are watered? Let any 
physiologist of this school apply this reasoning to his 
own ' completely matured ' body, and cease to supply 
it with food because it has ceased to become larger. 
But if leaves ' do not become larger,' the plants which 
bear them do. The formation of the bud, the down- 
ward growth, the growth in girthing, and the growth 
in elongation of the roots, are in full tide when the 
leaves have ceased ' to become larger ; ' and the leaves 
are doubtless essential to this increase. Suppose a 
gardener were to take Liebig's word, and to refuse to 
water his pot greenhouse plants when turned out for 
the summer. Not one would survive. And why do 
they require watering when plants in the open ground 
do not ? Because the earth in the pots is exposed all 
round to drouglit from sun and air, and unless the 
earth were watered the roots would have no mois- 
ture to absorb. While in reference to plants plunged 
in the earth, the upper surface only of the ground is 
exposed, and the roots underneath the surface have 
always moisture to absorb. 

To feel the force of the dpicrrov ^ilv vScop we must 
go to the sallow south; but if, on Liebig's principle 



CH. IT. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



49 



pot-plants are not watered, even in our moist English 
summer, their roots would have nothing to imbibe 
from, and the plants would die. What faith is the 
practical man to place in the theorist who puts him up 
to such secrets as these ? Possibly Liebig may have 
taken his vegetable physiology on trust from others ; 
but certainly this is one of a dozen monstrous theories 
with which this (so said) profound chemist would 
annihilate the very foundations of vegetable physiology, 
giving him the best. ' Mutato nomine,' his own words 
to Burdach apply to Liebig : ' All inquiry is arrested 
by such opinions, when propagated by a teacher who 
enjoys a merited reputation obtained by knowledge 
and hard labour.' 

Liebig writes, in reference to ferns, &c. : ' They 
resemble in this respect the plants which we raise 
from bulbs and tubers, and which live, while young, 
upon the substances contained in their seed, and require 
no food from the soil when their exterior organs of 
nutrition are formed. This class of plants is even at 
present ranked amongst those which do not exhaust 
the soil.' According to this, we ought to be able to 
grow our potatoes without any soil at all : but, in fact, 
there is no crop which exhausts the soil for itself more 
than potatoes ; there is no crop which is more grateful 
for a change of soil ; and there is no crop whose 
growth differs more, according to the different soil in 
which it is grown. Any one of these three facts proves 
that the potato is nourished from the soil^ not from the 

E 



50 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



air ; and under this idea tlie soil is twice hoed after 
the potatoes are above it ; that is, it is ' flat hoed ' and 
' hilled up.' And Liebig himself says : ' The increase 
of crops obtained by the use of guano is very remark- 
able. According to the same authority (Garcilaso), 
the crop of potatoes is increased forty-five times by 
means of it,' and ' I applied to a field of potatoes 
manure consisting of night-soil and sulphate of mag- 
nesia (Epsom salts), and obtained a remarkably large 
crop.' Again : ' In the first year all the different parts 
of the field produced potatoes, but they succeeded best 
in those divisions which had been manured with peat, 
ashes, lime, and marl.' All these cases prove the 
growth of the potato to be from the soil, not from the 
air. 

If plants draw their nourishment from the atmo- 
sphere, why do we find plants peculiar to peculiar 
soils ? Let any one farm on the idea that the growth 
is to accrue from the atmosphere, not from the soil. 
If Liebig's views are correct, a landlord should put his 
land up to let, not by the quality of the land, but by 
the acreage of atmosphere which overhangs the land. 
If, however, Liebig would but condescend to follow the 
example of Dioclesian, and plant chemical kale instead 
of imperial cabbages, he would find that he must not 
leave the large leaves on his transplanted greens with 
a view of supporting the plants, but that he must cut 
the large leaves off because the plants cannot support 
them. 



CH. n. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



51 



Liebig writes : ' The verdant plants of warm cli- 
mates are very often sucli as obtain from the soil only 
a point of attachment^ and are not dependent on it for 
their growth. How extremely small are the roots of 
the Cactus, Sedum, and Sempervirum, in proportion to 
their mass, and to the surface of their leaves ! ' In the 
next paragraph, he with much naivete refers to experi- 
ments of Lukas at Munich ; who, by mixing charcoal 
with the soil^ gives a wonderful growth to 'young 
tropical plants^' of all descriptions. Among other 
plants, ' a cactus, planted in a mixture of equal parts of 
charcoal and earth, throve progressively, and attained 
double its former size in the space of a few weeks. The 
use of the charcoal was very advantageous with several 
of the Bromeliaceas and Liliacese, with the Citrus and 
Begonia also, and even with the Palmge.' Here the 
roots must have served as more than ' only a point of 
attachment,' and the increased growth must have been 
from the soil, not from the air. 

But, according to Liebig, there's nought like chem- 
istry. He would do as much with his atmospheric 
chemistry as the currier with his leather. He generates 
and feeds his leaves by the carbonic acid of the atmo- 
sphere ; and when he has done with them, he destroys 
them with the oxygen of the atmosphere. And he 
forms his trees by mechanical patchwork, and by 
juxtaposition, as he would a stalactite, or as he would 
the trees in the garden of a doll's house. 

• When the food of a plant is in greater quantity 

E 2 



52 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



than its organs require for their own perfect develop- 
ment, the superfluous nutriment is not returned to the 
soil, but is employed in the formation of new organs. 
At the side of a cell, already formed, another cell 
arises. At the side of a twig and leaf, a new twig and 
a new leaf are developed.' 
Again : — 

' The power of absorbing nutriment from the atmo- 
sphere, with which the leaves of plants are endowed, 
being proportionate to the extent of their surface, every 
increase in the size and number of these parts is neces- 
sarily attended with an increase of nutritive power, and 
a consequent further development of new leaves and 
branches.' 

Again : — 

' The organs of assimilation, at this period of their 
life, receive more nourishment from the atmosphere 
than they employ in their own sustenance ; and when 
the formation of the woody substance has advanced to 
a certain extent, the expenditure of the nutriment, the 
supply of which still remains the same, takes a new 
direction, and blossoms are produced. The functions 
of the leaves of most plants cease upon the ripening of 
their fruit, because the products of their action are no 
longer needed. They now yield to the chemical 
influence of the oxygen of the air, generally sufier a 
change in colour, and fall off.' 

The Author of nature, and the author of the ' Che- 
mistry of Physiology,' form their trees on widely 



CH. ri. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



53 



different principles. No bud contains one leaf only, 
and perhaps, ' a shoot-bud ' would be a more proper 
name than ' a /^a/-bud.' But whether a bud contains 
the germs of leaves and a shoot, or of a flower and 
fruit, or of all these, these buds are all formed at the 
same time, and in the year previous to their bursting. The 
contents of each bud are preordained and prearranged 
(in exquisite embryo) in the jorevious year. They are 
the offspring of no second chemical cause, but of the 
first cause. They are fairly conceived by the Creator, 
and borne in the womb of the bud for perhaps nine 
months. Any particular season of the year, or any 
atmospheric chemistry consequent to any particular 
season of the year, could no more change the contents 
of these buds as shoots to fruits than it could change 
lions to lambs. The generation of a new leaf is about 
as much an affair of chemistry as the generation of an 
animal is. And it is in consequence of each bud giving 
rise to a family of leaves that all nature's growth is 
symmetrical^ and not made up of Liebig's patchwork. 
In the case of a second or midsummer shoot,* or of 

* I imagine that a second or midsTimmer shoot of the plane 
would be impossible without the previous defoliation of the tree, 
since the winter-buds are ensheathed in the footstalks of the 
leaves. The plane, therefore, is essentially and necessarily de- 
ciduous. And I have observed, at Madeira, that the plane is 
for two or three months without leaves, though our oak may in 
those climes almost be called an evergreen. The idea in Madeira 
is, that the old leaves of the oak are only displaced by the burst- 
ing of the spring buds. But the buds of every tree I know, 
except the plane, may burst without displacing the leaves, a^a 
they actually do in the second or midsummer shoot. 



54 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. 11. 



an accidental shoot from the bare stem of a tree, a 
regular bud is first formed ; and, consequently, even 
these accidental shoots have symmetrical growth. But 
a leaf is never formed by itself ; so that, in the case of 
an accidental shoot from a bare stem, it may be said 
that a bud is formed without a previous leaf, but a leaf 
is never formed without a previous bud, as Liebig would 
have it. 

When the heads of coppice-stools or of pollards 
have been cut, their first year's growth is always late, 
because they have first to form buds before they can 
shoot. 

The tulip-tree is the most exquisite exemplification 
of the parturition of a bud. If, between May and 
August, the transparent case is held up to the light, 
the enclosed leaf will be seen doubled on itself, and 
crane-necked. The case is broken by the protrusion, 
not of the leaf only, but of the whole shoot or contents 
of the bud ; and the case, which remains for some time 
at the foot of each leaf- stalk, is not that which con- 
tained that leaf, but that which contained the embryoes 
of all its younger brethren. These younger brethren, 
which are beautifully packed nearer to the stem than 
the head of the leaf which is to be developed, are succes- 
sively protruded farther from the stem than that leaf 

There is nothing in which trees differ more than in 
the folding of the leaf in the bud, though it is always 
the same in the same species. Some plants, as the vine, 
have each leaf beautifully folded over its batch of 



CH. II. 



COUKSE OF THE SAP. 



55 



younger brethren. It has then no case ; and it is a very 
frequent rule, though with many exceptions, that those 
leaves which have cases are either doubled or rolled on 
themselves, and those leaves which have no cases are 
folded over the remaining bud. 

Neither has the relative time at which the fruit-bud 
or the shoot-bud hursts any reference to any general 
chemical cause, but to the particular constitution of the 
tree. For instance, the white-thorn, or May, develops 
its leaves and shoots before its flowers ; the black-thorn, 
or sloe, develops its flowers before its leaves and shoots. 
And this last is perhaps the most general rule among 
fruit-trees. Many, however, develop flowers and shoots 
simultaneously. 

With regard to the death of the leaf at the time of 
the ripening of the fruit, perhaps the only way in 
which leaves have any reference to the growth or to 
the ripening of the fruit is, that if there are too many 
leaves, their increase abstracts from the growth of the 
fruit, and their shade prevents the ripening of it. But 
do summer apples and pears, or do the plants which 
ripen their ft-uits in June and July, 'yield to the 
chemical influence of the oxygen of the air,' and de- 
foliate then? If so, cherry-trees would be curious 
objects about midsummer ; so would gooseberries, 
raspberries, currants, &c. Strawberries make their 
great growth after ripening their fruit. 

Deciduous trees defoliate at the end of autumn, 
though this is very much an afiair of temperature ; 
that is, the same tree, in difierent latitudes, will keep 



56 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



its leaves later directly as warmth, but it will ripen its 
fruit earlier directly as the warmth of the climate. 
Evergreens shed one year's leaves at the end of winter. 
But neither of these defoliations has the slightest 
reference to the ripening of the fruit ; and the time 
of ripening of the fruit has no reference to any general 
chemical causes, but to the particular constitution given 
to the plant by an Almighty Creator. 

Liebig also makes plants play fast and loose in 
reference to their carbonic acid and oxygen. In the 
light, they absorb carbonic acid, and give off oxygen ; 
vice versd^ in the dark. All plants throughout the 
globe are, in point of time, for six months in the year 
in the light, and for six months in the dark. There- 
fore, all evergreen plants and pastures absorb and give 
off each gas for equal periods of time ; not in equal 
volumes, however, according to Liebig. 

' The proper, constant, and inexhaustible sources of 
oxygen gas are the tropics and warm climates, where 
a sky seldom clouded permits the glowing rays of the 
sun to shine upon an immeasurably luxuriant vegeta- 
tion. The temperate and cold zones, where artificial 
warmth must replace deficient heat of the sun, produce, 
on the contrary, carbonic acid in superabundance, 
which is expended in the nutrition of the tropical 
plants. The same stream of air which moves by the 
revolution of the earth from the equator to the poles 
brings to us, in its passage from the equator, the oxy- 
gen generated there, and carries away the carbonic 
acid formed during our winter.' 



CH. rr. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



57 



Now, in reference to ' the temperate and cold 
zones/ it appears to me a contradiction to say that the 
carbon of all our plants is formed from the carbonic 
acid in the air, and that the superabundance of carbonic 
acid in the air is formed by the plants. And in 
reference to ' the tropics and warm climates,' suppose 
this soldier's * wind to have conveyed the two gases 
to their opposite destinations, tropical heat generates 
aridity and sterility, unless where the soil is irrigated 
by nature or art. What farther proof can we want 
that the ' immeasurably luxuriant vegetation ' is drawn 
by the roots from the soil, not by the leaves from the 
exotic carbonic acid imported on so grand a scale by 
Liebig from the north and south ? 

Then, the oxygen evolved by plants is essential to 
the breathing of man and animals. And ' thus, cultiva- 
tion heightens the healthy state of a country,' and a 
previously healthy ' country would be rendered quite 
uninhabitable by the cessation of all cultivation.' It 
appears here that we poor beasts grow our air from 
our plants, as well as our plants from our air. But 
has Nature no plants without cultivation P And in 
countries where she has no plants, as on sandy deserts, 
or in regions of eternal snow, is the air impure and 
unwholesome ? Or does more malaria hang over the 
wide wide sea than over tropical swamps, which are 

* But perhaps Liebig will lay a down-line to the tropics above 
his up-line to the poles. And will he dispatch his luggage- trains 
of heavy carbonic acid gas by that ? Gravity forbid ! ! 



58 



COUESE OF THE SAP. 



PI. II. 



' the proper, constant, and inexhaustible sources of 
oxygen gas ' ? 

Second In deciduous trees, and in the greater part of 

office of o -L 

mation rf"^' ^^g^^^^ evergrceus, if each leaf does not form a bud, 
bud™*^"^" at least each leaf is accompanied by a bud. And I 
imagine that one essential office of the leaf is the 
formation and summer nutriment of the winter-hud. 
Each bud forms a shoot, or a flower, or both, the next 
year. This is the general rule. But vast quantities of 
leaves fail to mature buds, vast quantities of buds fail 
to produce shoots, and vast quantities of shoots fail to 
grow. Wind, or an insect, or drought, or any thing 
which injures or destroys a leaf, will injure or destroy 
its bud, and consequently the next year's growth of 
that bud. This is one chief cause of the baneful effect 
of wind on trees. Besides this, the circulation of the 
Third office sap is dependent on the leaf throughout the summer, 

of leaves, 

the Chang- as it Is dependent on the bud in the winter. The leaf 

ing of the 

the upward tum-tablc which shifts the sap from the up to 

the*^wiod, the down4ine in summer, as the bud is this turn-table 

downward lU the winter. Summer and winter this traffic is con- 
conduit, . . , . . 

the bark, staut ; but as it IS less m winter, so the plant and staff 
required to work it is less. Keep your turn-tables in 
order, or lose your traffic. 

The growth That the growth in the girthing, or diameter of 

is f?oS\hf trees, is a downward growth, that is, from the descend- 
downward 

peSdent^on ^^P' lesist that the descending sap is necessary 
by exp^ri- growth iu girth, seems clear from this : If a 

ring of bark is taken off round a branch of a tree, so 



cii. ri. 



COUKSE OF THE SAP. 



59 



as permanently to lay bare the wood, and to intercept 

the return of the sap through the bark, as long as the 

branch lives it will continue to increase in girthing 

above the ring, but not below it ; and when such a 

branch is sawed in two, lengthwise, each additional 

annual layer may be counted above the ring, but none 

below it. But if the growth in girthing were deposited 

from the upward sap, the parts of a branch below the 

ring would be more favourably situated for it than the 

parts above the ring ; also, if notches are made up a 

stem, the new growth comes first on the highest, and 

descends in succession. From these facts it is believed and sup- 
posed to be 

that, after the sap has been elaborated in the leaf, in its deposited 

^ -L from the 

descent through the bark it deposits the new growth 
in girthing. If, however, the sap is elaborated solely 
in the leaf, and if the growth in girthing is deposited 
solely from the descending sap in the bark, the growth 
in girthing of the plum-stock of a grafted peach-tree 
should be peach ; but the stock remains still plum, its 
roots plum, its shoots plum, and its suckers plum. On 
the other hand, if the elaboration were wholly in the 
root or stem, and the new grov/th in girthing from the 
upward sap, the wood and leaves of the peach would 
become plum. But purple beech* and variegated 
sycamore grow for ever unchanged, though engrafted 
on common stocks, as a single branch of a plant 
accidentally variegated will for ever retain its character. 
When peach-scions are grafted or budded on 

* Purple beeclies may be raised from seed. I have one which 
I planted ont in 1837, and have them of all ages since that. 



60 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. 11. 



plum-stocks from 4 to 5 feet high, the plum-stocks 
taper in the usual way, from below upwards ; but in 
the course of years the growth of the peach appears to 
overpower the stock, and it will be seen to taper from 
above downwards. This over-growth says distinctly 
that it comes 'from above ; but that this over-growth 
is plum, not peach, says as distinctly that it is not 
solely from above. I think it, then, probable that the 
upward sap may communicate laterally throughout 
from the wood to the bark ; and that, for the growth 
in girthing, it may be necessary to bring together, on 
the common ground on which the new external layer 
of wood and the new internal layer of bark are depo- 
sited, a sap which has been subjected to a triple elabo- 
ration, namely, juices of the upward sap — the product 
of chemical decomposition, assimilation, and elabora- 
tion in the stem, and those of the downward sap — 
which have been subjected to res]Diration, transpiration, 
and elaboration in the leaf, and to all these processes 
in their descent through the bark ; finally, that a 
fourth elaboration of those saps may take place, on 
their junction between the wood and the bark, for the 
deposit of the new growth in girthing there. I confess 
that this is terrible guess-work ; but I choose and state 
the theory which appears to me to have the least 
guess-work. As I have said throughout, all is doubt 
and difficulty. We may at least acknowledge our 
ignorance in the afiair. To be ignorant is bad enough ; 
but to be ignorant of one's own ignorance is worse. If 



CH. II, 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



61 



a man knows that he has lost his way, he will at least 
go carefully ; he will be On the look-out, and be the 
more likely to find it. 

It is certain that s^reat chemical changes, or elabo- But 

^ elaboration 

ration of the sap, must take place in the root or stem ^akef place 
befoi-e it reaches the leaf, since sap of very different sap^'reaches 
quahties is drawn from the stems of different trees. 
Witness the sugar from the maple and birch, the resin 
from the fir, &c. &c., which are found in the heai^t- 
wood ; also, the alteration of the heart-wood in 
density, and the change of sap-wood into heart-wood, 
argue elaboration in the stem, and deposit from the 
upward sap. 

It is also certain that great chemical changes, or and also 

^ ^ ' after it 

elaboration of the sap, must take place in the bark, or ^^^^^ 
elsewhere, after it has left the leaf; since wood of very 
different qualities is deposited on the stem of the same 
grafted tree. 

Of the fact which I have supposed probable, 
namely, the lateral communication of the sap through- 
out the wood to the bark, I will give proof immedi- 
ately, while considering the office of the pith (or 
medulla, ' marrow '), and its rays or silver grain 
(medullary rays), which many have supposed to be the 
means of this lateral communication between the pith 
and the bark. But I will first state those theories, in Received 

theories of 

reference to the growth in girthing, which have been f^thing'' 
most generally accepted. 

Grew said that the new layer of wood is formed 



62 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. ir. 



from a viscid substance, to which he gave the name of 
cambium. But where is the cambium itself formed ? 
How and where elaborated ? Duhamel thought that 
the last year's layer of bark was converted into this 
year's layer of wood. We can see that this is not the 
case. Du Petit-Thouars thinks that the new layer of 
wood is formed by the buds (though I believe the 
origin of this theory is due to Darwin) ; that the fibres 
in the new layer of wood are the roots of the buds, 
w^hich, at the bursting of the buds, run between the 
last year's bark and wood to the ends of the roots. 

Dr. Lindley thus confidently and complacently 
concludes his statement of the theory of Darwin and 
Du Petit-Thouars : — ' The elongation of the leaf-bud 
upwards gives rise to new axes with their appendages ; 
their elongation downwards increases the diameter of 
that part of the axis which pre-existed, and produces 
roots.' 

The argument from the grafted stocks is, I think, 
stronger against this theory than against the growth 
from the descending sap ; for though the Doctor may 
adopt the idea of the lateral flow of sap, and make it 
necessary to irrigate the roots of the buds, it would 
scarcely have the power to metamorphose an actual 
growing fibre of peach-wood into a fibre of plum- 
wood. 

The pith or Dutrochet and Link bring us back to Hales's doc- 
and medul- triue of the all-importancc of the pith. Indeed, 

lary rays tit 

or silver Dutrochct would establish the omnipresence of the 

grain. 



cn. IT. 



COUESE OF THE SAP. 



63 



pith. He tells us that each division between the 
annual layers of wood is a pith for the layer outside it 
(let us call these concentrical piths, to distinguish them 
from the central pith) ; and that, in addition to the 
original medullary rays, or silver grain, which run 
from the central pith or medulla to the bark, and 
which are annually prolonged through each successive 
concentrical pith and layer of wood — in addition to 
these, intermediate medullary rays are developed from 
each new concentral pith, which run from that new 
concentrical pith to the bark, and are annually pro- 
longed. Indeed, as very few medullary rays could be 
developed in a seedhng of perhaps half an inch in 
girthing, it seems only natural that the number of rays 
should increase with the growth of the tree. Other- 
wise, when the girthing of the tree had increased from 
half an inch to thirty feet, the medullary rays would 
stand very far apart at their outward ends ; and in the 
bark of thirty feet circumference there would be only 
the same number of rays as in the bark of half an inch 
circumference. The new rays, however, have no right 
strictly to the name of medullary^ since they do not 
originate in the central pith or medulla. The medul- MeduUary 

rays longi- 

lary rays, which appear like the spokes of a wheel pi^t^g^^^^i^ 
when the stem is cut across, are, in fact, thin plates J^en'Jth^b/'^ 
running the whole length of the stem, roots, and of ti^^t^and 
branches. In width they increase every year by the branches 

and roots. 

width of the new layer of wood across which they 
extend to the bark, and in length they increase every 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



year by the length of the new shoot of the branches 
and roots. 

The shake, The medullarv rays and the concentrical piths are 

and cup- J. 

shake. go far distinct from the wood, that what are absurdly 
called, and commonly believed to be, shakes arise in 
them. All the shakes which I have observed show on 
each side of the tree, from which I imagine they must 
be the result of disease in the original medullary rays 
of the seedling : for one can scarcely suppose sym- 
pathy between two oj)posite new medullary rays which 
have no junction with each other ; nor would one 
have anticipated this in two opjDosite original rays. 
That the shakes pass through the bark shows, I think, 
that the rays of the wood communicate with those of 
the bark. These shakes often rise to a great height, 
and are never cured. A diseased concentric pith is 
called a cup-shake. 

The concentric pith or cup-shake, may be called 
finite ; the medullary ray shake, infinite, by com- 
parison : that is, a cup-shake is conical, and cannot 
extend above the cone of the year's growth in which 
it is generated. All the timber, therefore, which is 
above that cone, or outside it, is sound. The medul- 
lary ray shake may be continually prolonged upward, 
downward, and outward and inward, with the growth 
of the tree. 

The new medullary rays proceeding from the new 
rings of pith may be easily seen in oaks : and I think 
that the medullary rays may be seen to prolong them- 



CR. JI. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



65 



selves into the latest layers of bark, if the stem of a 
living oak-tree is cut across ; at least, there is a white 
line across these layers of bark, opposite the end of 
each medullary ray. 

Some physiologists have supposed a lateral com- Lateral as 

well as 

mumcation of the sap between each and all the annual longitudi- 

nal flow of 

layers of wood by means of these medullary rays, or 
silver grain. But to show what guess-work vegetable ™'^* 
physiology consists of, others suppose that these rays 
are merely conductors of atmospheric air between the 
bark and the pith. That there is a lateral transmission 
of sap throughout the wood by some means or other, I 
think may be argued from the existence of ringed 
branches. Indeed, were it not for this lateral commu- 
nication, whether branches were ringed or not, their 
buds, leaves, fruits, and shoots could only be supplied 
with upward sap from the last year's growth of wood 
on which they are placed ; and the upward sap of 
every annual growth of wood, except the last, would 
be confined within the limits of the cone formed by 
each annual growth. 

I have a bough of a pear-tree which I ringed for 
the space of an inch in June 1832, and which I cut off 
the tree in December 1843. It bore fruit for the last 
ten of these eleven years, though the rest of the tree 
had never borne fruit up to the last-named year. The 
branch was alive when I cut it off. The woody part 
above the ring is, owing to its annual growth in girth- 
ing, double the size of the ringed part. 



66 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II, 



It is clear that every part of the interior of this 
branch — that is, of the woody part of it — which existed 
when it was ringed in 1832 was in 1843 divided from 
the exterior bark, and consequently from every bud 
and leaf, by eleven annual sheaths or growths ; and 
the upward sap, which nourished the bud, the leaf, 
the shoot, and the fruit in 1843, must have been sup- 
plied to them from the old liuged interior wood by 
lateral transmission through the eleven newer annual 
growths of wood. 
The longi- It must, howcvcT, bc obscTvcd that the cone formed 
pJth'Saan- at thc top of cach annual growth of wood is not a 

nels extend 

throughout closed cone, but an open cone. The top of each cone 

the tree, ^ ^ 

pXome ^ crater. The pith passes through this 

sSdiiigto crater, and the top bud is seated on this pith. The 
ramifica- pith of cacli sldc-bud also joins the pith of the twig 

tions of the 

roots and to wliicli it is attached, as the pith of each branch 

branches of ^ 

treVwWch which emauatcs from the stem joins the pith of the 
aii?e."^'^'^ stem. This may be seen to be so in Plate I. ; and 
also, if you divide an end-bud of a horse-chestnut 
branch, or if you divide the branch at any of the joints, 
where one year's growth ends, and the next begins. 
The channel of the pith may be seen to be continuous 
through the head of each annual cone ; of the same 
size as the upper part of the older growth, and con- 
siderably smaller than the lower part of the newer 
growth. The pith, in fact, tapers upwards precisely as 
the shoot does ; and the pith of the new year's shoot, 
notwithstanding its communication with the taper top 



CH. ir. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



67 



of tlie pith of the last year's shoot, stands witli as broad 

a basis as that of the seedhng. I think that this junction Diminu- 
tion in the 

of tlie taper top of the pith of one year's shoot, with ^^^j^f^^J^® 
the broad base of the pith of next year's shoot, is the pej^Ja^ce" 
origin of the ideas that the pith of each shoot becomes 
annually smaller than that of the shoot above it, by 
the new annual pressure from without of the wood, 
and that the pith eventually disappears. Both these 
ideas are vulgar errors. Dr, Lindley believes (or did, 
in 1849) of the pith, that 'its office of nourishing the 
young parts being accomplished, it is of no farther im- 
portance, and dies.' This may be so, certainly, but I 
wonder what the Doctor's reasons are for thinking so ; 
the same, perhaps, as for thinking that all heart-wood 
is dead-wood. What other parts of the tree is the 
Doctor prepared to dispense with ? That a tree will 
live when the original central pith, and nearly all the 
heart- wood, are dead and gone^ we know ; and so will 
a man when one of his lungs is gone ; and the man and 
the tree are equally benefited by the loss. 

The difference in size, between the top of the pith 
of one year's shoot and the base of the next, may 
also be seen in Plate I. And in regard to the dis- 
appearance of the pith, even the layers of wood, which 
may be counted on this board, give thirty years of age 
to the lower pith, and twenty-nine to the upper one ; 
but they are possibly much older, and perhaps half a 
century of pressure from without has neither extermin- 
ated them nor even reduced the lower end of the upper 

s 2 



COURSE OF Tl^E SAP. 



PT. II. 



shoot to the same size as the upper end of the lower 
shoot. And I think it probable that each is of the 
exact shape and size that nature formed it the first 
year it grew. 

Again, you have only to examine a newly cut tree 
of any sort, and, if sound, you will see the pith, though 
around it you may count from 50 to 150 years' growth. 
In drying, after the trees have been some time cut, small 
cracks in the direction of the silver grain meet at the 
pith, and prevent its being seen. This accidental disap- 
pearance of the pith, immediately on the death of the 
tree, is another corroboration of the vulgar belief of the 
death and disappearance of the pith during the life of 
the tree. Every innumerable small side-twig of every 
innumerable small branch and root of the most gigantic 
oak, gives origin to a new series of annual cones of 
- growth ; and until internal death and decay supervene, 
the first annual pith of the original seedling communi- 
cates with these countless ramifications of branch and 
root, and by its direct and lateral elongations passes, 
through the tops of these innumerable myriads of cones, 
to every side or leading bud, and to near the termina- 
tion of every the finest ramification of the roots. 
Whether Many of the older, and some existing physiologists, 
of the lip"'* maintain that the upward sap is solely transmitted by 
Z^noC^ the pith ; and the fact I have stated seems to favour 
the opinion that the pith may play a prominent part in 
supplying the bud, leaf, and new shoot with upward 
sap : but how could the eleven layers of new wood. 



cb:. ir. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



69 



which sheathed the sides of the ringed branch, have 
been kept moist with sap, except by lateral transmission 
from one layer of wood to the other, independent of 
the longitudinal channels of the pith ? And that the 
upward sap is supplied even to the bud by the wood, 
and not by the pith, I think we may argue from the 
success of budding. In this beautiful process, the pith 
of the bud is totally disconnected from any other centi^al 
pith. It is placed on the side-wood, and can only 
receive the upward sap by lateral transmission from 
that side-wood. The same may be said of the scion in 
crown-grafting ; its pith is quite separated from any 
central pith. 

Dutrochet has, however, started the idea, that the Do the cen- 

'''"^ piths 

outside of each annual growth of wood is a pith, of budded 

^ ^ _ ' buds, 

which we have called concentricai piths, to distinguish grafts, and 
them from the central pith ; and it may be argued that coppice^-^ 
it is possible that the central pith of a budded bud, or municate 

with 

of the scion in crown-graftmg, may communicate with Dutrochet's 
a concentricai pith, and that the central pith of a shoot p^^^' 
of a pollard, or of a coppice-wood stool, may originate 
in a concentricai pith. If the yearling shoots of pol- 
lards or coppice-stools are knocked off so as to have a 
part of the old wood on which they grew still attached 
to them, and if the lower ends of these shoots are split 
down the piths into the old wood, the piths will be 
seen each to originate in a point surrounded by the old 
wood, and in conjunction with no other central pith. 
But I should rather say that the central pith of each 



concentricac 

s? 



70 



COUESE OF THE SAP. 



PT. 11. 



shoot will be seen to originate in an extra deposit of 
cheesey pitli on the last so-called concentrical pith of 
the stem-wood. In the ash, the cheesey point of the 
central pith of the shoot is bright green, and the extra 
mass of cheesey pith of the stem-wood is a yellowish 
white ; and I think their junction is very visible. This 
fact, if it is a fact, seems to confirm Dutrochet's bold 
suggestion, that the outside of each concentrical layer 
of wood really is a pith, T have always doubted this 
idea, because the substance of these concentrical piths 
appears so different from that of the central pith ; their 
substance appears to be not only wood, but the hardest 
and most durable part of the wood. If the ends of 
fir-trees are left resting on the moist ground, these so- 
called concentrical piths will remain after the layers of 
wood have rotted away from between them. 

In favour of Dutrochet's idea, I have observed 
that, if young Scotch firs are decapitated with a saw, 
the resinous sap may be seen to stand in drops on their 
concentric piths. The stems, also, of Scotch firs, when 
cut down, appear to bleed from them alone ; and it is, 
perhaps, possible that the longitudinal upward flow of 
sap may be through these piths only, and the lateral 
flow through the silver grain, or medullary raj^s. 

But whether the central pith of the shoot of a 
pollard or coppice-wood stool originate in the wood of 
the stem, or of the last crop of branches, or in the 
supposed outside concentrical pith of one of these, 
should either or neither of these observations be correct, 



cn. II. 



COUKSE OF THE SAP. 



71 



I think the case deserves investigation. I also think 
that such a question as this being hitherto unansLoered — 
(might I not say, hitherto unasked f) — ^proves that we 
have yet much to learn in the science, and that there 
are many things under heaven and earth little dreamt 
of in our ^physiology.'' Unless these concentrical piths 
are piths, the growth of the bud, when disconnected 
from the central pith below it, disproves De CandoUe's 
ingenious suggestion, that the pith is the cotyledon of 
the hud: for the life of the seedling is dependent on its 
cotyledon, — that is, on its seed ; and it perishes when 
disconnected from it, even after leaves are developed 
on the plant, and the roots are several inches long. 
But besides this, the cotyledon, or seed, is absorbed 
and vanishes in feeding the seedling, but the pith 
endures for ever. De Candolle states that, in the 
chestnut, the ash, and the vine, ' the pith is interrupted 
at each node, or annual shoot, by a kind of ivoody par- 
tition.' Here, I think, this very great physiologist 
makes a very great mistake. It is true, that in the 
ash and horse-chestnut, at the junction of one year's 
shoot with the next, the texture of the pith may be 
described as cheesey.^ instead of spongy. And in the 
vine, this cheesey pith separates the spongy pith, not 
only at the junction of each annual shoot with the 
next, but at each knot or side-bud. But there is 
nothing in the least resembling wood in this cheesey 
pith ; and when it is scooped out, the pith- channel of 
the vine is of the same size through the knots as at 



72 



COUESE OF THE SAP. 



PT. ri. 



any other part, and the pith-channel of the horse- 
chestnut and ash is of the same size between any two 
shoots as the pith-channel of the top of the lower 
shoot. In these two trees, the pith of every shoot and 
twig is snrmounted with cheesey pith ; so that every 
bud is placed on cheesey pith, and is as much divided 
from a spongy pith by a ' woody partition,' as the pith 
is interrupted at each node or annual shoot by a 
' woody partition.' 

If De CandoUe's fact is true, that in the chestnut, 
the ash, and the vine, ' the pith is interrupted at each 
node or annual shoot by a kind of woody partition,' 
if this fact of De Candolle's is true, what becomes of 
his theory^ that the pith is the cotyledon of the bud ? 

I do not think it would be an improper description 
of the piths of these trees to say that their spongy piths 
begin with, or are seated on, cheesey pith, and end in 
cheesey pith, on which the bud is seated. 
Office of The only opinion which I should venture to ex- 

the pith • p 1 • 1 • 1 

not known, prcss, lu reierencc to the pith, is the negative one, that 
no one has as yet discovered its offices. If this is so, 
it is not saying much for our knowledge of vegetable 
physiology. 

As the sap- Wcrc the upward sap supplied to each branch by 

dicinncls 

are general, longitudinal channels from the root, peculiar to that 

not pecu- 

inj'ir"°' pruning or cutting out of branches would 

th?suppiy benefit the leader and the remaining branches, 
leaded, &c. The gTowtli of thcsc is, liowcvcr, increased by judicious 
and gradual pruning, because the channels for the up- 



CH. II. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



73 



ward sap from the root are not peculiar, but general, 
through the whole wood of the stem, to every or any 
part or side of it, where nature, or chance, or art, 
allows it an outlet for growth and elaboration. 

The reason of the extraordinary strength of the 
shoots of pollards and coppice-stools is, that they, the 
minor body, receive the sap transmitted by all the old 
wood, from all the roots, which supply was adapted 
and sufficient for the growth of the larger body, — the 
head lately cut off. 

But it is only by lateral transmission that the new 
crop of shoots can avail themselves of the whole sap 
supplied to the stem or stool by the roots. Were the 
channels of the sap through the wood only longitudinal, 
the new shoots would only get the supply of those 
vessels on which they were seated, and they would 
have no freer growth than ordinary shoots. The sap, 
in fact, flows freely in any and every direction through 
the w^hole wood ; and in forest pruning, that sap which 
Nature may be said to have intended for an amputated 
branch, she immediately converts to the extra growth 
of the leader and the remaining branches. Thus, where 
tall clean timber is required, the gradual, I had almost 
said annual^ removal of ill-placed or unduly large 
branches does good in two ways ; for, while undesirable 
growth is destroyed, an annual fillip may be given to 
the growth which is desired to an indefinite period. 

A new innermost layer of bark (the new cortical Anew 

layer of 

layer) is also formed each year, from the descending ^^"^^ 



COUESE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



formed sap, coiTespoiiding with the increased girthing of the 

every year. 

tree. The old or outward layers are stretched out- 
wards, crack, and form the rough bark seen on old 
trunks. The yearhng shoot has but one layer of bark, 
besides the outer cuticle, the two-year-old shoot two, 
and so on ; and each shoot may be said to have as 
many layers of bark, as well as as many layers of wood, 
as it is years old. But with regard to the layers of 
bark, besides the sloughing off, the circumference of 
the earlier layers Avould be very disproportioned to 
that of the later ones. If the circumference of the bark 
of the seedling oak were half an inch, it would make 
a poor show when rent and divided over the outer cir- 
cumference of a full-grown tree, supposing it to have 
existed. This growth of the bark may also be con- 
sidered as partaking of the principle of the growth by 
juxta-position, since the annual new layer is a distinct 
coating or deposit of new growth on the inside of the 
bark, and not a growth or increase of parts already 
formed. It is from the downward sap, since in branches 
which are ringed it ceases to be deposited below tlie 
rings, but is continued annually above the rings. 

De Candolle makes a distinction between the outer 
skin or covering of the leaf and annual shoot and that 
of all other parts of the tree. He calls the outer cover- 
ing of the leaf and annual shoot the cuticle^ and that 
of the rest of the tree the epidermis. There is certainly 
a difference between living skin and bark and dead 
skin and bark, and it might be as well if they had 



CH. rr. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



75 



different names ; but if we give the name of cuticle to 
the outer covering of the hving bark, it will be found, 
"with its green under layer oi parenchyma^ — the green, 
porous, spongy layer, which is called the ' herbaceous 
envelope,' — to extend over a much larger space of our 
forest-trees than De Candolle assigns to it. There is 
nothing in which even the same sort of trees differ 
more than in this respect. According to growth, soil, 
exposure, &c., the cuticle exists to a very indefinite 
period ; and it would be hard to say where cuticle 
ceased and epidermis began. Living external bark, 
with a green under layer, may be found on oak, ash, 
beech, Spanish and horse-chestnut, sycamore, poplar, 
&c., &c., on parts varying from twenty to fifty years 
in age. And in the plane-tree, whose bark scales off 
as it dies, and thus admits light and air to the under 
layer, or herbaceous envelope, this may always be found 
green on any part of the stem or branches. On roots 
also from twenty to fifty years in age may be found a 
fine silvery cuticle which tears off like paper ; though 
in roots, under ordinary circumstances, the under layer, 
or herbaceous envelope, is white, not green. 

De Candolle states it as a distinctive character- 
istic of roots, as compared with the stem, that ' they do 
not become green even when they are exposed to the 
air and light.' And this opinion is universally held by 
physiologists ; but it is an error. De Candolle, in proof 
of the opinion, states that the roots of the hyacinths 
grown in transparent glasses do not turn green. This 



76 



COUESE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



is true of them, and also of the silver ends of woody- 
roots ; but it must be recollected that to neither of 
these can the air be admitted when they grow in water, 
or light when they grow in earth. It is however, I 
believe, true of these unripe ends of roots, under any 
circumstances. But when part of a woody root is 
accidentally exposed by the wearing away of a bank, 
&c., the layer below the outer circle will be found 
green, precisely the same as on a branch ; though 
where the root goes under the ground, both nearer 
and farther from the stem, the under layer will be 
white. The layer under the outer cuticle may also be 
observed green at the commencement of the root of a 
young tree, when it is accidentally exposed near the 
neck of the plant. This is not a matter of opinion, but 
a mattter of fact, and we have only to use our eyes to 
see it. 

On the other hand, since writing this, I have ob- 
served that, in those parts of the stems of seedlings 
which pass through earth, the piths and the herbaceous 
That roots envclopcs are as white as those of roots. I say those 

have no 

piths an Qf roots, for I have also observed that the tap-roots of 

error. ' J- 

seedlings have piths of precisely the same size as the 
stems. And I doubt not it will be found that the roots, 
as well as the stems, consist solely of alternate layers of 
pith and wood, with one outer skin or cuticle. If 
roots have no piths, what are the rays or silver grain 
in the roots of oaks ? Non-medullary rays ? In the 
experiments detailed farther on, with a view to induce 



CH. ri. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



77 



tlie stems to grow downward to the liglit, and the 
roots upwards m the earth, some of the gemmules or 
stems grew upward, and came out of the hole at the 
then upper part of the inverted flower-pot. These 
plants passed through eight inches and a half of 
earth. On dividing them lengthwise I found that, in 
those parts of the stem which grew in the air, the piths 
and herbaceous envelopes were green, and in those 
parts which grew in the earth they were white. The 
piths ran tlie entire length of the roots as well as the 
stems ; and where the necks of the plants divided the 
stems from tlie roots, the two piths were continuous, 
and of precisely equal size. It is the universal error 
in physiology, to believe that roots have no piths. Let 
any one divide a seedling horse-chestnut, and he will 
convince himself. 

Each layer of bark is supposed to have its proper pith 
or cellular ring outside it. The green cellular or ' herba- 
ceous envelope ' under the outer cuticle is supposed to 
be the pith of the outer layer of bark, and to be to the 
layers of bark what the central pith is to the layers of 
wood; and throughout its whole extent there is 
probably a direct vascular communication between this 
green external pith of the bark and the internal central 
pith of the wood, by means of the medullary rays. 
This green parenchymatous pith of the bark is in com- 
munication with, and is in fact a continuation of, the 
parenchymatous parts of the leaves (the spongy porous 
parts, as distinguished from the woody fibrous parts), 



78- 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



PT. II. 



as the outer skin or cuticle of the stem is of the cuticle 
of the leaves and buds. 
There is All physioloo^ists talk of the circulation of the sap : 

no true L J i 

SThetip^ ^^^^ ^^^^ expression must be used, though it is a very 
t'he^Mof incorrect one; that is, no one, I believe, has asserted, 
nor can we suppose any one to imagine, that there is a 
true circulation of the sap of plants, like that of the 
blood of animals. By the circulation of the sap is 
meant merely its ascent through the wood into the 
leaves and buds, thence into the green outer pith of the 
bark, on which the leaves and buds are situated, and 
its descent to the roots, through the living parts of the 
bark. How the descent dies off and stops, it is difficult 
to imagine ; but it is still more difficult to suppose that 
any part of the sap should re-ascend. The whole affair, 
however, is a matter of the merest conjecture. 

The ' projjer juices' of plants are found in this 
green ' herbaceous envelope ;' for example, resin in the 
fir : and the woods of different trees do not differ more 
in their proper constituents than the barks of different 
trees; [ind, j^ossibly, as the first herbaceous envelope is 
burst and destroyed, the next ring of pith assumes its 
functions. 

Let the practical man guard these external piths 
from external injury. Besides the gnawing of horses, 
cattle like to find soft-barked trees, such as Scotch firs, 
&C-, of a size that they can take between their horns to 
rub their foreheads against, and do infinite mischief in this 
way. Trees that are too large for this are comparatively 



cn. ij. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



79 



safe, as the side rubbing of cattle does not injure them 
so much ; besides that, the dead epidermis of old trees 
is a great defence to them. It is the mechanicarm]mj 
which is to be guarded against : the idea of chemical 
poisoning from animal oil is a fancy. 



80 



UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. ii. 



CHAPTEE III. 



GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



Upward 
growth of 
the head 
and down- 
ward 
growth of 
the roo's 
considered 
together. 



The 
upward 
growth of 
a tree, or 
lengthen- 
ing of its 
shoot, is by- 
enlarge- 
ment of all 
parts of 
that shoot; 
and all 
parts of 
these parts 
progress 
bodily 
upwards. 



I HAVE postponed the consideration of the upward 
growth of the head in elongation, in order to take it in 
conjunction with the downward growth of the root in 
elongation ; because I think that each may be better 
understood by contrast with the other. This is a 
deviation from the order laid down in an early para- 
graph, but I leave that paragraph unaltered, because I 
think it may give the beginner a clearer idea of which 
growth is supposed to result from the upward sap, and 
which from the downward sap. 

The upward growth of a tree, as compared with its 
downward growth, may be said to resemble the 
growth of animals by intus-susception ; that is, the 
growth of the shoots of the current year of the leader 
and branches, is a growth or extension of parts already 
formed by the upward and outward increase of all 
those parts from within. Besides the growth at their 
ends, all the parts of the shoot of the current year, to a 
certain degree, grow bodily upw^ards, or by what (by 
comparison with the downward growth) may be called 



cn. III. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



81 



intus-susception. I have observed this in plants which 
I have introduced through the window-sill, and trained 
against the shutter, by marking the position and up- 
ward progress of the stalk of each leaf where it joins 
the stem. Duhamel first pointed out this fact. With 
the exception of the parts of the shoot of the current 
year, no other part of a tree makes any upward pro- 
gress. The downward growth of a tree, that is, the The 

^ downward 

elongation of the roots, and the OTowth in girthing of growth of 

o ' o t) fc) the tree, 

every part of the tree, may by comparison be said to ening^o?' 
resemble the growth of minerals by juxta-position ; that simply by 

' f growth at 

IS, roots are leno^thened only by the deposit of new the end of 

^ ^ J ^ r the root. 

growth at their ends, and they do not progress bodily 
through the earth. I have never remarked accurately 
how this is with plants grown in water : but I believe 
it to be the same as when they grow in the earth, and 
that this mode of growth is the result of the organic 
structure of the root, and not of the mechanical diffi- 
culty of forcing itself through the earth ; though, no 
doubt, this peculiar organisation is a contrivance^ and a 
very beautiful one, to overcome the mechanical diffi- 
culty. 

The root has as strong a first tendency downward By what 

agency is 

as the stem has upward, though it puzzles our philo- ^^^^^^^^ 
sophy to account for either. The first downward ten- th^rJot^^^ 
dency of the root is, however, soon counteracted by ^^^^^^^'^'^ 
circumstances, such as the necessity of atmospheric 
aeration, the goodness of upper compared with lower 
soils, the intervention of rocks, chalk, &c. ; and the 



82 UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. ii. 

root is found to grow liorizoiitally, or sloping upward 
or downward, according to the inclination of the 
ground. I consider the idea of the tap-root of the oak 
(except as a seedling) to be a vulgar error. I have 
never seen any trace of a root at any great distance from 
the surface of the ground ; nor do the stumps of oaks, 
when grubbed, show any symptom of a tap-root more 
than other trees. But the question of the existence of 
tap-roots in large oaks or other timber- trees should not 
be argued as a matter of opinion, but proved as a mat- 
ter of fact. The negative, indeed, cannot be proved. 
I could produce any required number of oaks with- 
out the tap-root, but this would not prove that others 
were without it. Let those who assert the affirmative 
produce one instance. 

The celebrated Duhamel, wishing to protect his 
field from robbery from the roots of a row of elms, cut 
a deep ditch between the elms and his field. The 
roots, however were not to be done. They of course 
followed the surface of the ground, whether down, 
horizontal, or up hill, and took the ditch ' in and out 
clever ' into the philosopher's field. Duhamel thinks 
these were very cunning roots, and that they had an 
instinctive notion of the treat they were to have on the 
other side of the ditch, ard grew at it. Had the 
philosopher built a wall in the ditch, and then filled it 
in, he would have beaten the roots, on account of their 
inability to leave the surface and get under the wall. 
Turges- Were we to add one step to the beautiful theories 

cence, and 



CH, in. DOWIsl\^\KD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 83 



of Knio'ht and Dutrochet respecting tlie growth of the action 

^ ' of light 

adhesive plants, and the tendrils of clmibins^ plants, from turges- 

<^ i. ' cence, pro- 

the light, we might attribute the upright grow^th of the ^frecithe 

stem and the aberration of its branches from the per- fheVeadof 

pendicular to the mere swelling (turgescence) of the ^ ^ 
cellular tissue of the new green shoot, and to the action 
of light on the swelling. 

It is asserted, on microscopic observation, that the CeUuiar 

formation 

bark of all new green shoots is entirely composed of of bark 

^ of greeu 

two layers of cellular tissue. The cells of the outside 
layer of tissue decrease in size from within outwards ; 
the cells of the inside layer decrease in size from with- 
out inwards. Thus the largest cells of each layer are 
next one another, or in the middle of the bark, and the 
smallest cehs are on the two sides, that is, the outside 

and the inside of the bark. Owing to this formation, How tur- 
gescence 

swelling would stretch a slip of bark perfectly straight, ^^^J^/^® 
since each layer of tissue would tend to curve itself ^0^^^*^°^ 
outward. But in plants w^hich grow towards the light 
the inside layer of tissue is the thickest, and therefore 
the most powerful in its action ; consequently swelling 
would bend a sHp of such bark inwards or towards its 
shoot, and such a shoot would be held up by the in- 
ward pressure of its bark all round it, as a wall may be 
propped from both sides. But in the bark of plants, 
or parts of plants, which grow from the light, such as 
ivy, the tendrils of climbing plants, &c., the outside 
layer of tissue is the strongest ; and the tops of the 
shoots of such plants tend to stand upright by the puil- 

Q 2 



84 UPWAED GEOWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. ii. 

ing outward of their bark from all sides, like the mast 
How light of a ship. But light, by increasing the giving off of 

acts on this x o ./ o cj o . 

turgesence. water (transpiration), decreases swelling ; and when it' 
falls unequally on plants, the forces on the illumined 
side will be weakened, and the shoot, according to the 
formation of its cellular tissue, will be turned either 
towards or from the light. Thus ivy, or the tendrils of 
climbing plants, are turned from the light towards any 
opaque body, while the generality of plants are turned 
from the opaque body towards the light. The whole 
of a plant kept in a room will grow sideways towards 
the window. The same plant placed where the light 
comes from above will immediately turn straight up. 
But though this principle is not so striking out of 
doors, it is perpetual and universal. 

As the light falls equally on the leader of a tree, it 
goes up straight. In proportion as the leader intercepts 
the hght from above, the branches grow towards the 
light at the sides ; and if one outstrips its neighbours, 
the light from above turns its end up. If the lower 
tier of branches outgrows the tier above it, in turning 
up, it will take its neighbour with it. That tier will 
turn the tier above ; and so in succession all the 
branches will grow upward. This growth is often 
seen in beech-trees. 

It is this principle which prevents the boughs of a 
tree from growing against one another. In proportion 
to their opacity they grow one from the other. 

Notwithstanding the original downward vertical 



cb:. nr. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



85 



determination of the root, and upward vertical deter- 
mination of the stem, the annual vertical growth in 
elongation of a tree, either upward or downward, is 
nothing in comparison with the growth of it, which 
forms angles with a vertical line : that is, out of all the 
numerous points of elongation of the head of a tree, 
there is but one which can go vertically upward in 
continuation of the line of the stem ; and out of all the 
numerous points of elongation of the root, there is but 
one which can go vertically downward in continuation 
of the line of the stem ; and I believe that one ceases 
to do so very soon. 

If the leader of a tree is killed, the light falling 
equally from above on many buds, a multiplicity of 
leaders may be developed ; though if one grows more 
vigorously than the others, by overshadowing them 
from above with its own side-growth, it will force 
them to grow sideways to the light, and the tree will 
again become single-leadered. Without pruning, a 
tree may become round-headed from the merest acci- 
dent ; for instance, an insect, or a bird, or the wind 
destroying the top bud. A tree on the side of a steep 
hill may be seen to grow from the opaque side above 
it, and, after it has reached a certain height, to curve 
back again. 

So far light would appear to be the principal agent Dutrochet, 
in directing the growth of the heads of plants. Yet Davy, &c., 

, , think that 

the majority of physiologists attribute the direction of fj^r^J^tsVe 
the growth both of the head and of the roots of plants both of the 



UPWAKD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. ir. 



head and to OTavitv. Among tliG Humber are Diitrochet, Kniglit, 

the roots & J o ' o ' 

Experi- ^^^^ Humphry Davy, men for capacity and clear- 

proof! ^^ss intellect matchless among physiologists. I will 
therefore go at length into two experiments of Dutro- 
chet and Knight, the conclusions drawn from which in 
favour of gravity have been enforced by Sir Humphry 
Davy. Dutrochet found that if beans, in a state of 
germination, were planted in holes through the bottom 
of a box filled with earth, the stems grew upward 
from the light into the earth, and the roots downward 
towards the light into the air ; and the plants perished 
when they ceased to derive nutriment from their 
seeds. 

Early in March 1844, I made experiments similar 
to those of Dutrochet, with results which, if at first 
they resembled, finally differed very widely from, those 
elicited by this eminent and most acute physiologist. 
And in considering these results, I think I shall be 
able to explain why the beans in Dutrochet's experi- 
ment died. I placed various seeds on the surface of 
large flower-pots full of earth, turned them over on 
wire-work, and hung the inverted pots from the wood- 
work at the upper part of my window, so as to have 
the lower sides of the seeds exposed to light and air 
from below, and their upper sides in contact with the 
moist earth above them. The immediate results 
showed a most remarkable determination of the first 
or tap-roots downward, and of the gemmules or stems 
upward. In all the experiments the first or tap-roots 



CH. nr. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 87 

of all the seeds, without a single exception, came 
straight down into the air, and ceased to grow when 
the ends in the air were from a quarter of an inch to 
an inch long. None ever turned up again. The 
plants, however, threw out branch-roots from their 
necks, fixed them upward in the earth, and continued 
to grow. Those parts of the roots which remained 
alive exposed to air and light for six weeks and up- 
wards turned green, as did the cotyledons themselves ; 
that is, the two divisions of the seed. 

At the same time, I took some horse-chestnut 
seeds, v/hose first or tap-roots had already begun to 
grow, and placed them so that these tap-roots pointed 
upward into the earth in the inverted fiower-pot, and 
the seeds touched the wire below. In all the cases 
the roots immediately turned straight down and came 
through the wire into the air. The gemmules or 
heads of five also came down, and, on cutting away 
the wire, all five grew horizontally to the light at the 
window, and then grew diagonally upward and to the 
light. The gemmules or heads of the rest grew up- 
ward through about 8| inches of earth, were drawn 
by the light with unerring precision through the hole 
of the flower-potj and one through an accidental hole 
of about a quarter of an inch in diameter. They then 
turned short towards the light at the window. 

In November, on taking the flower-pot off, I found 
that branch-roots had passed over the top of the ball 
of earth, 8^ inches high. I replaced the flower-pot 



88 



UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AXD pt. ii. 



with a cliimney-pot 2 feet 7 inches high, and filled it 
with earth, leaving only the five plants whose heads 
had come out below. I placed the experiment out of 
doors, supported from below. The five plants grew in 
1845. In the spring of 1846 I cut off all except one 
plant, and placed a second chimney-pot above the first 
one. 

In March 1850 I placed a third chimney-pot on 
the second, making the column of earth 7 feet 5 inches 
in height. The roots had already reached the top of 
the second chimney-pot, about 5 feet in vertical . 
height ; and in June 1850 the plant itself was 7 feet 
8 inches high. In the autumn of 1851 the roots were 
near the top of the third chimney-pot, having grown 
vertically upward about 7 feet. The plant itself was 
within an inch of 9 feet. In the spring of 1852 I 
raised the column of earth to 8 feet 1 inch, and in the 
summer the plant was 9 feet 8 inches high. 
Upward In otlicr similar experiments the soft gemmules, or 

growth of 

first gem- stcms, of s^ardcu beans and scarlet-runners forced 

mule when ^ 

ofiMit"^ themselves upward through about 10.^ inches of earth, 
came through the holes of the flower-pot, and grew 
towards the light till the runners required training. 

Hence it would appear that, while in the earth, the 
first gemmules have a straight upward tendency inde- 
pendent of light. If we attribute the straightness to 
turgescence, I do not see why the growth should be in 
a straight line up more than down^ or in any other 
direction. But the gemmule seems beautifully en- 



CH. iiT. DOWJS'WARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



89 



dowed witli an internal structure, differing from that of 
every other part of the plant, by which, when buried too 
deeply, it takes the most direct line to the atmosphere 
in which it is formed to flourish : though it would 
puzzle our philosophy to say the agent by which this 
growth is directed, as much as to name the agent 
which directs the growth of the root, tap or branch. 

When the gemmules reach the air the agent 
appears to be light. At least, when the gemmules 
reach the air this straight upward tendency is imme- 
diately overcome by light. These stems, after having 
forced themselves straight upwards through eight or 
ten inches of earth, were drawn away from the spot 
where each emerged from the earth by light througli 
the holes at the centre of the flower-pot. The plants Cmne-neck 

growth of 

were still crane-necked ; that is, their heads were ^^}^- 

' ' mule, to 

doubled on their stems as they came out of the seeds : ^hii^otce^f 
and thus, while the stem of a plant whose seed has the^eSih. 
two divisions or cotyledons is forcing its way upward, 
its head is pointed downward, and the leaves are 
drawn through the earth with the grain. But for the 
contrivance of the crank or crane-neck, the leaflets, 
owing to their branching and extending one from the 
other, must be broken and torn to pieces by the great 
force necessary to thrust them and the stems bodily 
through the earth. This is a very beautiful provision. Roots grow 



The roots, on the other hand, appear to grow in ^J^^^^^^f^J^y 



through 
the eartl 
with ver 

length through the earth, with very little, if any, pres- 
sure at all. This may possibly be in part owing to 



90 UrWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. ir. 

their elongating only at their ends, and to their not 
being thrust bodily through the earth. I have laid 
horse-chestnuts on the surface of a box of earth, and, 
by arching them over with layers of damp flannel 
which did not touch them, they grew, and the tap- 
roots struck downward into the earth and fixed them- 
selves ; though they had no foreign fulcrum to press 
from, except the weight of the seed, which was not 
perpendicularly above them. Can there be anything 
glutinous about the silver ends of roots, which enables 
them to adhere to the earth while their new growth is 
protruded through it ? And I may ask here, if roots 
have spongioles or small sponges at their ends, are 
we to believe that these sponges are locomotive or 
stationary ? Are we to believe that these delicate 
organs are thrust forward through the hard ground ? 
Or are we to suppose that the perpetual new growth 
of root is perpetual new sponge, as its preceding 
sponge is converted into root ? 

As the stems of the plants grew, I heightened the 
moist canopy, and let in light only by one opening. 
All the stems grew towards that opening ; and as often 
as the opening was changed from one end of the 
canopy to the other, the direction of the stems was 
changed ; that is, besides the new growth towards the 
hght, the parts of the stems which were already 
formed were bent towards the light. Three or four 
hours were sufficient to effect this change in these 
tender, drawn stems. 



CH. HI. 



DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



91 



Observing in the various experiments that several 
grass-seeds grew downward with their heads towards 
the hght, and as plants with single-divisioned seeds 
grow with their heads single and not with the crane- 
neck, I imagined that they had not perhaps the same 
power of forcing themselves through the earth which 
plants whose seeds have two divisions have. I there- 
fore tried wheat, barley, and oats, which, as well as 
the grasses, are monocotyledonous ; that is, have a 
single or undivided seed. A great quantity of root 
w^as first shown downward, and ceased to grow. The 
heads then came down and grew towards the light. 
The roots fixed themselves upward and the plants 
grew. When the heads of any engaged themselves 
against the earth, tlie stems bowed downward, and 
sometimes bent short before the heads were dis- 
engaged. 

In the course of three weeks three plants of wheat 
forced their heads through about 7| inches of earth, 
and showed themselves at the hole of the flower-pot. 
They, however, ceased to grow, being possibly beaten 
down by the watering. 

Probably one reason which enables these delicate Provision 

to enable 

organisations to dispense with the crane-neck in thegem- 

mule of a 

thrusting themselves through the hard earth is, that ^^^1^^' 
they are entirely single-leadered, instead of having thrSSt^tsei 
leaflets branching sideways hke the gemmules of tiirea^rtb. 
double-seeded plantules. But, beside this, the single 
tender blade is rolled round on itself, and enveloped in 



92 



UPWARD GEOWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. ii. 



a coarse, thick, white outer coating, pointed at the 
top. The instant the point of this tongh sheath clears 
the earth, it opens and emits the green blade un- 
scathed into the air. Here is again a beautiftil con- 
trivance. The barley and oats growing from below, 
ripened their seed, which grew when sowed. 

I have not known an instance of a garden bean 
getting the head of its first gemmule below the wire ; 
though, when the head was engaged above, the stalk 
would bow down, and in this state the branch-roots 
fixed themselves, and the plant grew, and threw out 
new shoots from the knots and from the neck, which 
Probable OTcw towards tlic light : and I think that the organi- 

distinot ^ ^ ^ ^ 

organisa- gatiou of thc first gcmmulc of the garden bean, and 

tion of first ® n ' 

gemmule. perhaps the first gemmule of all plants, is different 
from the organisation of all other parts of plants. I 
think that the reason of the death of the beans in 
Dutrochet's beautiful experiment was, that their necks 
and tap-roots were too far detached from the earth to 
allow them to throw out branch-roots ; and that, had 
they thrown out branch-roots, they would also have 
thrown out branch-stems. 

If any of the scarlet-runners engaged their heads 
so as to be unable to descend, they broke out, like the 
beans, from the necks. But the heads of the gem- 
mules of many scarlet- runners came down, grew eight 
or ten inches horizontally across the wires to the light, 
and then up the side of the pot diagonally to the light, 
till they required support as usual. Some grew across 



CH. irr. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 93 

the wires without touching them. One pressed con- 
stantly against the wires, and seemed only compelled 
to its course by the mechanical resistance from above. 
I placed a string for each plant to climb, and as they 
ascended I let the flower -pot down, so that at last it 
touched the floor of the room, and the plants the 
ceiling. They circle round their support against the 
sun, as it is called ; that is, the course of their growth 
and of their sap in the half circle on the south side of 
their supports is from west to east, and in the half 
circle on the north side of their supports from east to 
west : in other words, they make the half circle which 
is farthest from the observer from right to left, and the 
half circle which is nearest to the observer from left to 
right. 

Many plants do the same, and many others (as the 
hop) exactly the reverse. JSTothing can alter these 
determinations of growth in these plants, which are, 
possibly in all cases, owing to the action of the same 
external agent, light, on different internal cellular 
organisation. 

Mechanically^ I have forced the heads of plants to 
grow downward, by placing the seeds and roots of 
beans in sponges, and confining their heads in glass 
tubes. I have mechanically forced the first or tap- 
roots of plants to grow upward by placing horse- 
chestnuts in earth, or half covered with water, and 
confining their tap-roots in glass tubes. Both the 
stems and the roots will, however, make every attempt 



94 



UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. ir. 



to double back ; and in doing so I have known the 
root grow spirally up the narrow tube like a cork- 
screw, and having at last (from becoming thin) turned, 
grow straight down through the screw. The tube 
being then quite filled up, the side-fibres of the upper 
end of the root grew straight up in a bunch. In 
plants which have overgrown their pots, the roots may 
be seen to grow straight up the side of the ball of 
earth, and in all directions around it, owing to the 
mechanical confinement in the pot. But I do not 
think that the roots ever return through the ball of 
earth towards the plant. The want of hght may 
probably be considered a sufficient reason for branches 
never returning towards the stem. I think it more 
difficult to find a reason for this perpetually centrifugal 
(or, if nova reruni iiomina be allowed, ipsifugal) 
determination of the root, 
strong In all the cases in all these experiments the plants 

downward 

«on o^f'tap permanently, and independently of their seeds, 

probawe Iii t^^^ cascs whcrc the gemmules or stems came 

ganiJ^tioi down into the air they grew across the wires to the 

of it. 

light at the window. None came from under the 
flower-pot on the sides towards the room, even though 
they emerged from the earth close to those sides. 
And in all cases, whether the gemmule grew upward 
through the earth, or downward into the air, the first 
or tap-root showed itself from above below, and never 
turned upward. But the branch-roots fixed them- 
selves, and grew from below upward ; and I therefore 



CH. nr. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 95 

imagine that there must be something perfectly distinct 
in the nature or cehular organisation of the original 
first or tap-root of seedlings, as compared with that of 
their branch-roots : though I cannot guess by what 
agent the growth of the differing structure of the tap 
and branch-root is to be directed in their differing 
course, any more than I can guess the agent which 
determines the upward growth of the first gemmule of 
a seedling while it is in the earth, and before it reaches 
the hght. 

Still farther to test this idea, which these experi- 
ments gave me, — that first or tap roots alone would 
appear below, and that no branch-roots would do so, — 
in March, 1846, I placed cuttings of gooseberry and 
currant in a pot of earth inverted on wire, and sus- 
pended in the air. The cuttings struck, and no roots 
appeared below ; the cause being, as I conceive, that, 
as there were no seedhng-roots, so there were no tap- 
roots. In July I destroyed all the cuttings except one 
currant, placed the experiment on a support from below 
and removed the flower-pot. There were a great 
many roots growing in all directions round and over 
the outside of the ball of earth. I replaced the flower- 
pot with a large chimney-pot, which I filled with earth. 
In 1847 the main shoot of the curi'ant slip was 4 feet 
1 inch in height. In March, 1848, I placed a second 
chimney-pot on the first ; and the plant grows and bears 
fruit now, 1853. 

From the results of these experiments, I think it 



96 UPTTARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. ir. 

probable that the organisation of the first gemmule of 
a plant is peculiar ; and I have not a doubt that the 
first radicle or tap-root of the seedling has a difierent 
cellular structure from that of the branch or side-roots. 
If these suppositions are facts, they are very interesting, 
as showing most clearly and beautifully the hand and 
design of the Creator. The same physical causes, — 
that is, moisture and turgescence, drought and exhaus- 
tion, heat, cold, light, atmospheric aeration, &c., — 
acting on different cellular organisations, unerringly 
trace out to each part of the plant the course which it 
is ordained to pursue. A seed is deeply buried in the 
autumnal hoard of some animal ; its first gemmule is 
endowed with an organisation which sends it directly 
upward. It no sooner reaches the atmosphere than its 
growth turns wherever it can find hght, which is, in 
fact, generally wherever it can find room. The seed 
falls on the surface of the earth, a first root is struck 
out, whose vertical determination downward nothing 
can pervert ; though lighter and softer than the earth, 
it pierces through the earth from above, even without 
the aid of a foreign fulcrum to press against. When 
this perpendicular descensus (as the whole root has been, 
perhaps improperly, called) has, by boring, buried 
itself, branch-roots strike out, which grow horizontally 
or vertically upward or downward, or at any inter- 
mediate angle, according to the level of the ground, 
at the exact proper distance from the atmosphere 
which the particular constitution of each plant requires. 



CH. in. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



97 



Thus, at every turn do we find how minutely perfect 
in detail is the work of that Almighty hand which, 
in the gross, swings the countless orbs of the firma- 
mental universe through infinite space 1 

I believe myself, then, that the tap-root is merely a Tap-root 

^ ^ ^ i- only proper 

provision of the Creator for this first fixing of the seed ; [J,5!tnd a 
that it is only proper to seedlings, and that it ceases to for fiTing^^ 
be continued after the first year's growth. Will no 
clever experimenter invent a mode of putting this 
question to nature? 

I do not mean but what a tap root might, under 
peculiar circumstances, be continued ad libitum by a 
main root. But the circumstances must be very 
peculiar. For instance, were a irionster manufactory 
chimney filled with good soil, and any tree planted at 
the top, you possibly might necessitate the growth of a 
main root of a hundred feet long vertically downward ; 
and probably, were a tree planted below, a main root 
of the same length might be grown vertically upward : 
though, after the first year's growth, not one single 
inch might have the organisation proper to tap-roots. 
On the other hand, I think that, were a tree planted on 
a draw-well filled with soil, the vertical root would 
soon cease on account of the want of atmospheric 
influence. Were some violent tap-rootist to try this 
experiment, his descendants might supply the dock- 
yard with a p(9^-oak, which, if drawn by the hydrauhc 
press, and its radical or tartarean growth added to its 
vertical or ^ethereal growth, would double its proper 

H 



98 



UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AXD pt. ii. 



measurement. Indeed, I marvel why tap-rootists do 
not pluck all their oaks like radishes or carrots, instead 
of, according to their doctrine, cutting them exactly in 
twain and leaving their lower halves to rot in the earth. 
But let any one in any soil dig a trench six feet deep 
close round an oak ; he will soon give up the idea of a 
tap-root. 

Magnis componere parva, in the beginning of April, 
1846, I planted a horse-chestnut on a column of earth 
about 7 ft. high, formed by placing three chimney-pots 
one on the other. In the autumns of 1850, 1851, 
1852, 1853, and 1854, I knocked off each year about 
a foot of the upper part of the chimney-pots, and 
denuded the roots to that extent : they are, however, 
branching. The ends of the branches, on reaching the 
sides, had apparently died, and new shoots from them 
had struck downward. There was not the least 
circular growth round the sides, as with plants in 
flower-pots ; possibly, because the chimney-pots were 
encrusted with soot. Two of the upper roots were 
entirely cleared from the earth in 1850. The woody 
parts of them are still alive (1853), though it would 
puzzle us to say whence their wood is supplied with 
sap : I suppose, from the stem ; if so, the upward sap, 
in this case, is a downward sap. 

The ' herbaceous envelope ' of these roots (that is, 
the surfa.ce of the bark immediately below the outer 
bark) is perfectly green where they are exposed to 
light and air, and perfectly white from the very spot 



CH. III. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



99 



wliere the earth protects them from the hght and air. 
When denuded, the herbaceous envelope begins to 
turn green in about a fortnight.* 

But an admirable experiment of Knight's furnishes 
the main fact from which it has been asserted that both 
the ascent of the stem and the descent of the root 
should be referred to gravity. When he subjected 
beans to a strong centrifugal force by making their 
seeds grow on the rims of wheels whirled rapidly by 
water, their roots grew from the centres of the wheels, 
and their stems towards the centres of the wheels. 
When the wheel was vertical, the growth of the plants 
was precisely as stated. When the wheel was horizontal, 
the growth of the plants was nearly horizontal ; but 
the stems inchned upward and the roots downward in 
an inverse ratio as the degree of centrifugal force. 
Eichard tells us that this experiment was repeated by 
Dutrochet, and the only difference was, that, in the 
case of the horizontal wheel, ' the inclination was much 
greater, and the radicles and gemmules had become 
almost horizontal.' This last witness appears to me to 
prove too much : for, granting the effects of gravity on 
the growth of plants to cease directly as the centrifugal 
force applied, the centrifugal force applied to each part 
of the plants in this experiment would diminish directly 

* I have omitted to observe whether the under bark of the 
old roots of plants grown in water is green or white ; if it is 
green, the colour must be owing to the action of light, indejpen- 
dently of atmospheric air. 

H 2 



100 UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. rr. 



as the nearness of eacli part to the centre of the wheeL 
Therefore, gravity would again resume its powers over 
each part directly as the centrifugal force diminished, 
and thus should elevate the heads of the plants on the 
horizontal wheel. This observation will hold good, 
whatever may have been the degree of centrifugal force 
applied. I have not, indeed, any idea of the degree 
which actually was applied ; and it is needless to 
mention the number of revolutions of the wheels in a 
given time, since their diameters are not given in either 
of the two accounts which I liave seen of this most 
beautiful experiment ; therefore, no correct notion can 
be formed of the degree of centrifugal force to which 
each part of the plants was subjected. But, as I have 
said, in any case the degree of that force must have 
varied in every part of the plants ; that is, it must have 
decreased on the stems, and increased on the roots, 
directly as their growth ; and when the heads of the 
stems had worked up the stream of centrifugal force to 
the centre of the wheel, ' where they soon met,' all 
action of the centrifugal force must have ceased on 
them ; and had they not turned upward at right angles 
to the spokes of the horizontal wheel, they would have 
gone headlono' down the contrary current of centrifuo^al 
force. 

Sir Humphry Davy remarks on this experiment : — 
' These facts afford a rational solution of this curious 
problem, respecting which different philosophers have 
given such different opinions ; some referring it to the 



vn. ur. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. lOl 



disputed. 



nature of the sap, as De la Hire ; others, as Darwin, to 
the hving powers of the plant, and the stimulus of air 
upon the leaves, and of moisture upon the roots. The 
effect is now shown to be connected with mechanical 
causes ; and there seems no other power in nature to 
which it can with propriety be referred but gravity, 
which acts universally, and which must tend to dispose 
the parts to take a uniform direction.' 

I honour and envy the mind which, like Mr. That the 

*' growth of 

Knight's, could foresee the probability of the marvellous ^^^^o^t is 
result of this beautiful experiment ; and if it is allow- gJ-aTit^ 
able at all jurare in verba magistri, where is the master 
whose word we would take sooner than Sir Humphry's ? 
But surely our great philosopher is here too easily 
satisfied, at least if he means (as I understand him) 
that the direction of the growth of plants in general is 
caused by gravity. I cannot think, myself, that the 
direction of any of their growth is caused by it. But, 
on the contrary, as vegetable growth is in opposition 
to gravity, so I think it is caused by one of the great 
antagonist powers to the attraction of gravity, and 
cohesion, — namely, turgescence, or expansion. 

This beautiful experiment, however, relates only 
to the vertical growth of plants upward and downward ; 
and has no reference whatever to the growth of either 
head or root horizontally, or at any angle with the 
horizontal hue, either upward or downward. Indeed, 
if the experiment proves anything, it proves that all 
vegetable growth must be vertical, either upward or 



102 UPWAED GROAVTH OP THE HEAD, AND pt. n. 

downward. The experiment, too, is made on the tap- 
root and first gemmule of the seedhng, the cellular 
structure of which I beheve in each case to differ from 
that of all other parts of plants. 

But looking on the experiment simply as regarding 
the vertical growth of the tap-root and gemmule of the 
seedling, or of any vertical growth of a plant, if we are 
to believe that this vertical growth is caused by gravity, 
it would be a case of credo quia impossibile. For to 
say that the sap or the new shoot — that either of these, 
the heavier, should be caused to ascend through the 
air, the lighter, by its weight, is as flat a contradiction 
in terms as to say that light is caused by darkness ; 
what Gellius said of the resurrection of the Palm-tree 
may be said of the ascent or re-ascent of any tree, 
adversus pondera resurgit. 

It is, indeed, the part of a thorough philosopher 
not to wonder at anything. Those who have no pre- 
tence to that character must wonder at everything ; and, 
among others, at the attractive force of gravity. Why 
a stone when dropped from the hand in the air should 
fall towards the centre of the earth is, of itself, a most 
unaccountably marvellous fact But this is in unison 
with our universal, everyday experience ; and the 
philosophic may not, and the unphilosophic do not, 
wonder at it. But how infinitely more unaccountably 
marvellous would it be if, owing to the same force — 
gravity —one half of the stone were to fall towards the 
centre of the earth, and the other half were to fly off in 



OH. III. DOWNWARD GEOWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



103 



the exactly opposite direction ; that is, towards the 
zenith ! As this would be contrary to our universal, 
everyday experience, possibly the philosophic, certainly 
the unphilosophic, would wonder at it. Yet if we refer 
the direction of the vertical growth of plants to gravity, 
this is precisely what does take place : namely, the 
first start of the root is with the attraction of gravity 
towards the centre of the earth ; the first start of the 
stem is against it, in the exactly opposite direction, — 
that is, towards the zenith. And why the root should 
obey, and the stem disobey, the otherwise universal law 
of gravity, would still puzzle our philosophy, as I said 
before. 

But difiicult as it would be to swallow the fact^ that 
gravity should cause part of a plant to go with it and 
part against, this is only half of what we have to swal- 
low. For, actually, the ivhole vertical growth of plants 
is against gravity ; and to say that gravity causes tliat 
growth against itself, is as contradictory as to say that 
darkness causes light. But, in fact, gravity acts as 
much against the descent of the root in earth, as against 
the ascent of stem in air. Gravity is a fine word, and 
means weight. Attraction of gravitation is a fine term, 
and means the attraction of weight : and, loosely speak- 
ing, it may be said, that within this world the sole 
effect of gravity or weight is, that the heaviest things 
have a tendency to get lowest ; that is, that (though we 
know not how or why) they are the most drawn 
towards the centre of the earth, and, consequently, that 



104 



UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND pt. li. 



the lightest things have a tendency to get highest — 
that is, that, where there is perfect facihty of move- 
ment in all directions, as in fluids, the lightest things 
are pressed farthest from the centre of the earth. But 
this tendency is constantly interfered with. If stones 
are put in a vessel half full of water, they, the heavier, 
are drawn by gravity, or weight, to the bottom, and 
they press the liquid water, the lighter, to the top of 
the vessel : and (though it is a false expression) the 
water may be said to ascend by gravity, as flame, or 
sparks, or smoke, — that is, heated air, — the lighter, 
may be said to ascend by gravity through the atmo- 
spheric air, the heavier. 

But if stones are placed on the surface of the solid 
earth, though they are the heavier, gravity, or weight, 
has not the power to draw them through it. How 
then, is gravity, or weight, which has not the power to 
draw a stone, the heavier solid, through the earth, the 
hghter solid, — how is it to have the power to draw a 
root, the lighter solid, through the earth, the heavier 
solid ? 

There would, indeed, be nothing wonderful in the 
root, the heavier, descending by gravity, or weight, 
through the fluid air, the hghter. But that the root, 
the lighter, should descend by gravity, or weight, 
through the earth, the heavier, is as inexplicable and 
as contradictory as that the stem the heavier, should 
ascend by gravity, or weight, through the air, the 
lighter. 



CH. IIT. DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 



105 



Tliat liglit, not gravity, is tlie main conductor of 
tlie growth of tlae heads of phuits is probable from 
the fact that, where trees stand close together, their 
chief growth is upwards, and their side-branches die ; 
and as long as their stems are thus in the shade, they 
show no disposition to shoot out sideways again. But 
the moment such an over thick wood is over-thinned, 
the stems burst out sideways to the light which is 
admitted. And he who is most wedded to the extra- 
ordinary paradox that the leader owes its vertical 
direction to gravity, will, I think, scarcely assert that 
the same cause produces the horizontal growth of the 
branch. 

Paradoxical as it may sound, if a side-branch of a 
tree descends from a height till it touches the ground, 
its growth all the time it is descending is rather upward 
than downward ; that is, the new growth, or shoot, at 
the end of such a bough is generally slightly curved 
upwards by the action of hght on the cellular structure 
of its upper side. Gravity, indeed, draws the whole 
branch down bodily, for light has no power to act 
through the dead bark ; but light will so draw the new 
end up against gravity, that, when the branch comes 
to the ground, it will rest on a curved elbow, not on 
its end. This fight between gravity and hght is the 
origin of very beautiful growth in many trees. 

Were I to lay down a general rule about the direc- General 
tion of the growth of the greater part of plants, it head^o- 

wards 

would be, that the growth above is in whatever ^^s^^J 



106 UPWAED GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AJsH pt. ii. 

general directioii it caii find light ; and that the growth below 

groA\'th of ^ ^ 

root to is in whatever direction it can find the best soil. I 

wherever 

goors^iif except the growth of the first tap-root of the seedling, 
and of its first gemmule, as long as this is below the 
earth, and consequently not exposed to light. 

The fact shown us by Knight's most beautiful 
experiment, much as it says, says no more in favour of 
gravity, or weight, as the director of the growth of 
plants, than the fact which we see every day, that plants 
are drawn by light, says in favour of light. 

Fools will rusli in where angels fear to tread ; 

and we may have plenty of them to settle these ques- 
tions for us nicely. But can the philosophic, or the 
unphilosophic, consider this first principle in physiology 
as settled, any more than any other first principle of 
it ? The whole is doubt and darkness. 

We are ignorant of how the sap is first imbibed. 
We are ignorant of what causes it to ascend. We are 
ignorant of where, or how, it is elaborated. We are 
ignorant of the office of the leaf. We are ignorant of 
the office of the pith. We are ignorant of what causes 
the stem to grow vertically upward. We are ignorant 
of what causes the branch to grow horizontally, or at 
any angle with the horizon, upward or downward. We 
are ignorant of what causes the tap-root to grow ver- 
tically downward. And we are ignorant of what 
causes the branch-root to grow horizontally, or at any 
angle with the .horizon, upward or downward ; or of 



CH. III. DOWWAKD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 107 



what causes the branch-root to grow vertically upward. 
If the vertical upward growth of a root is doubted, 
I can show it now going on to any one who desires to 
see it. I have myself put the question to Nature, and 
I have her autograph answer to it in my possession. 

In this case of roots growing upward, the descensus 
becomes an ascensus. What is called the ascending 
sap in the wood of the root, becomes a descending 
sap ; and what is called the descending sap in the bark 
of the root, becomes an ascending sap. With submis- 
sion to Sir Humphry Davy, what has gravity to do 
with all this ? 

That this our nineteenth century has infinitely 
more knowledge of vegetable physiology than any fore- 
going age I have not a doubt. But if any one imagines 
that we have arrived at a competent knowledge of the 
science, when a dozen questions of such vital impor- 
tance as these are open, I think he only shows that he 
is ignorant of the depth of our ignorance. 



108 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



n. ir. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Barked In Julv, 1832, I obseivecl a horse-chestnut tree near 

horse- 

E^h^^^^ Esher, in the corner of a field adjoining Sandown turn- 
pike-gate. It had been barked by cattle all round, I 
should suppose twenty or twenty-five years before, 
since the surface of the barked part was rotten, and 
ipight be picked olT. Mr. King, steward to Mr. 
Spicer, to whom the tree belongs, said that he had 
recollected the tree in this state for eighteen years. 

The head of the tree was in full foliage, and at the 
end of some branches, which had been cropped by 
cattle the previous year, had shot six or seven inches. 
The girth of the barked part of the stem was thirteen 
inches and seven -eighths. The girth below the barked 
part was twenty-two inches and a quarter, and above 
the barked part, twenty-nine inches. The tree had 
ceased to deposit new growth on the old scar, which I 
attribute to the rottenness of the surface of the scar, 
and to its having mouldered away from under the 
living bark. I think it probable that, if a new surface 
were veneered over the old scar, the stem would con- 



CH. IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



109 



tinue to deposit new growth on it from above. This 
tree is still ahve (1844), having lived, possibly, nearly 
forty years in this state. 

I imagine that the reason that this tree has con- 
tinued to live is, that each year it has shot out new 
branches from below the scar. These branches have 
each year been eaten off by cattle ; but they have 
elaborated and returned sufficient sap to nourish the root 
and to keep it alive. I imagine that, if these branches 
had been allowed to grow, they would have taken so 
much sap that it would have ceased to be forced up 
the old stem, and that the old stem would have died. 
So that, but for the annual outburst of shoots below 
the scar, the roots of the tree would die ; and but for 
the annual browsing of these shoots, the head of the 
tree would die. Yet on this precarious tenure the 
tree has for so long held its existence. But the 
existence of this tree and of ringed branches proves 
to ocular demonstration that the sap goes up the heart- 
wood, since on the scar and on the rings no new wood 
or alburnum is deposited. It is true that the number 
of rings of what is called sap-wood or alburnum differ 
in different trees, and even parts of the rings of a tree 
may ripen sooner into heart- wood than other parts of the 
same rings, so that on the same transverse section of a 
tree there shall be more rings of sap-wood on one side 
than on the other. This may be observed in oaks ; 
but on the scar of this tree no alburnum or sap-wood 
has been deposited for possibly nearly half a century. 



110 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. ir. 



I published this account of this tree in 1844. In 
1849, Dr. Lindley writes as follows: — Neither is it 
indispensable that bark should be present in order to 
allow the passage of sap downwards, as is proved by 
trees, whose bark has been accidentally destroyed, con- 
tinuing to live for many years. In such cases the sup- 
position is, that the falling sap passes laterally into the 
medullary plates, and descends by them until it gets 
into communication with those which end in bark, 
when the usual channel of descent is resumed.' 

I take this supposition to be the Doctor's own 
particular supposition : and a supposition most difficult 
to swallow it is ! 

But the Doctor makes it unnecessarily so. Why 
make the sap hop, skip, and jump from one medullary 
plate to another? These plates all 'end in bark' 
where there is bark to end in, and are all continuous 
from end to end of the stem and branches, and, as I 
assert, of the roots also. But that ' the falling sap ' 
should descend by these medullary plates is about as 
likely as that two meeting trains should pass one another 
on the same tramway, or that if a man's veins were 
destroyed his blood should flow to his heart through 
the arteries which are at the same time conducting it 
from his heart. And if the sap did descend at all 
below the scar, the tree would increase below the scar, 
which it does not, unless there is an outbreak of 
branches below the scar. 

This is the gentleman who some pages before finds 



CH. IT. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Ill 



tlie heart-wood so ''filled with secretions ' that there is 
no room even for the upward sap to ascend through it. 
Yet now he makes it convey both upAvard and down- 
ward sap, for there can be no sap-wood under an old 
scar.. But this voluminous compiler of other people's 
ideas, states all, however incompatible or contradic- 
tory one may be to the other, and uses either as con- 
venient Here he makes the growth in diameter to be 
the result of ' the falling sap.' A httle before he 
adopts, confidently, the theory of Darwin and Du 
Petit'-Thouars. In this there is no ' falling sap ' allowed ; 
but a downward growth ' of organic fibres descending 
from the leaf-buds.' If this theory were true, a com- 
mon mind would shrink from the difficulty of passing 
these organic fibres through the medullary plates, even 
the first year : but it would require a Lindley to face 
the annually increasing difficulty ; especially as neither 
the barked part of the stem, nor the part below it, is 
to increase in girthing by these excessive growths and 
deposits of organic fibres. Or, if the barked part is to 
increase it must be on the principle of one of De 
CandoUe's monocotyledonous endogens ; I like sesqui- 
pedalia ! 

Mr. Wallis brings forward a fact which is, perhaps, 
as complete a stunner as the Doctor's theory. He gives 
a portrait of a thorn which lived and grew for seven 
years after its stem was sawed across and divided from 
its roots : ' On examination, the lower part of its stem 
had remained of the size it was when sawed through ; 



112 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. IT. 



whereas tlie upper part of the stem that had been so 
suspended in the air by its branches, had gained three 
inches in circumference.' Bravo ! This is a famous 
fact for that numerous class of physiologists who, with 
Priestley and Liebig at their head, believe that trees 
elaborate their thick bulk from the thin air through 
the medium of their leaves. And it is a knock-me- 
down blow to those more commonplace grovellers who, 
with myself in their rear, fancy that roots may be neces- 
sary for the growth of timber. But I think that Mr. 
Wallis must have been mistaken. The effect he de- 
scribes is precisely w^hat we should expect if the stem 
were sawed quite rounds but not quite through. Then 
the thorn would be in precisely the same situation as 
the barked horse-chestnut which I have just described. 
The sap would flow from the roots up that part of the 
heart-wood which was not sawed through, and in its 
descent through the bark would deposit new growth as 
low as the w^ound, but no lower. Below the wound 
no growth would occur ; and the roots, unless the 
stem broke out below, being unfed, would, in the 
course of years, die. If this is not the true solution, if 
the fact stated by Mr. Wallis is a fact, then let us see it 
again. Nothing can be more easy than to repeat the 
experiment. Let those who, with Mr. Wallis and the 
great Liebig, consider the root as a mere pedestal for 
the mechanical support of the tree and not for the sup- 
ply of its food, let them try this experiment on their 
wall-fruit trees. These trees are already nicely ' sus- 



CH. rv. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



113 



pended in the air by their branches : ' cut the stems 
below the heads and eradicate them. The trmikless 
heads on the wall, full of growth, leaves, and fruit, 
would be curious and beautiful objects ! and the 
absence of the roots below would be a great conve- 
nience to the gardener ! 

We, indeed, see daily, in plashing thorn hedges, 
how small a quantity of wood and bark is necessary to 
form the connecting link between the head and the 
root, and permanently to preserve vitality. But if Mr. 
Wallis's facts are facts, we should see them every day ; 
we should see the stems and branches of trees and 
underwood, when cut, continue to grow, and their 
roots die. But what we do see is the exact reverse of 
this. 

Mr. Walhs alludes also to the fact, that trees when 

cut down will, sometimes shoot out in the next summer. 

This has been always known, and always accounted 

for by the elder physiologists as the effect of what 

they called the concrete sap previously stored in the 

tree. But as trees separated from their roots are 

separated from the source of their sap, these shoots 

never live after the first summer. 

As the roots of trees grow in length through the Best time 
11 • • 1 • 1 1 trans- 

earth, they are m perfect contact with it, and as they pI^^^^^^^s 

increase each year in girthing this contact is continued, ^Jj^^^^ 

and the pressure against the earth even increased. I 

imagine that this close contact of the roots with the 

earth is very essential for the absorption of moisture ; 

I 



114 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. II. 



and that, when a ball of earth is taken up with a trans- 
planted tree, the parts of the roots contained in the 
ball are infinitely more efficient for the supply of sap 
than five times their length of root not in perfect con- 
tact with the earth. But certain it is that, by taking 
a large ball of earth, with ' the tree-lifter,' I have 
transplanted tress of about twenty-five feet in height in 
every month in the year, without a single failure, and 
without the plant feehng its removal so much as a 
greenhouse plant does potting, that is without a single 
leaf drooping, even in the hottest days of June, July, 
and August, though the plant was unwatered, and with 
the same growth on the tree, in the next and following 
years, as on those in the plantation from which it was 
taken. 

In 1846, I sent the following to the Hampshire 
paper, which appeared 13th June: 'Anyone taking 
interest in vegetable physiology, who happens to be 
in the neighbourhood of Brookwood Park, is invited to 
inspect a tree transplanted on Wednesday, the 3rd 
instant. On that day the thermometer stood at 80° in 
the shade, and at 120° in the sun ; and there was a 
parching east wind. This extraordinary heat continued 
for five days, and is now only beginning to abate. Yet 
although the tree is in full foliage, not a single leaf has 
flagged. The height of the tree is 27 ft., its girth 1 ft. 
10 in. Every root is cut at the distance of about two 
feet from the tree. It can, therefore, have few ends of 
roots to feed it. That it is not supplied by the leaves, as 



CH. IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



115 



Liebig and others suppose, is clear, because the leaves 
of the branches which were cut off at the transplanting 
could not even supply themselves, but died before the 
transplanting was completed and dried immediately. 
If the leaves supplied the tree with sap, these branches 
should have remained green. One scorched specimen 
of them is attached to the tree. The tree stands in the 
right-hand hedge bordering the road going down from 
the Brookwood Lodge gate to the Dean, at the point 
where the cross-hedge falls on the road. The smaller 
trees on the sides of this road were planted from the 
nursery in January, 1834. The larger beech- trees 
among them were transplanted with " the tree-lifter " at 
different times since that year, chiefly, like tlie tree in 
question, in full leaf, and in the months of June, July, 
and August.' The tree transplanted in 1846 is growing 
Avell at the present writing (1853), and has grown well 
in all the intervening years. 

I consider, however, that the worst time to trans- 
plant a tree is when it is shooting : the best time, as 
soon as possible after it has shot ; that is, as soon as it 
has formed its winter-bud. This will differ in different 
trees. Some are fit to transplant in June, or even in 
May. The best months for transplanting the generality 
of English trees with the ball of earth, are July, August, 
and September ; for, though the upward growth has 
then ceased, the growth in girthing, and the downward 
growth, that is, the elongation of the roots, are in the 
fullest tide. 

I 2 



116 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. II. 



From observation of the growth of the root in 
potted plants, and also of the seedhngs of trees grown 
in water (one of which I have in its seventh year's 
growth, 1844), I am satisfied that the great downward 
growth of the root takes place immediately after the 
great upward growth of the head ; that is, at the end 
of summer, during the autumn, and in early winter : 
and that the wounds of the roots of trees, transplanted 
immediately after they have made their upward shoot, 
begin to heal or cicatrise, or, as the gardeners say, 
callous over immediately. These callouses are a pro- 
lific source of new shoots for the root, which besides, 
from having been shortened, makes a profusion of 
lateral shoots that same season. These shoots become 
woody, and the root is consequently in a state to sup- 
ply the great upward demand next spring. 
Absurd It has been reserved for the nineteenth century to 

notion that - i • i 

trees dera- start thc uotiou that trccs deradicate as well as defoliate. 

dicate as 

defoikte Were a man to say that ' as stags shed their horns 

annually, in like manner they also shed their feet 
annually,' visum teneatis 1 Yet not a whit less laugh- 
able is the dictum that ' as trees shed their leaves 
annually, which are the extremities of their stems, they 
in like manner also shed the extremities of their roots 
annually.' I speak from recollection from a work on 
gardening by Mr. Mackintosh, and I think that he 
mentions Dr. Lindley as among the sapient holders of 
this brilliant notion. 

The idea was probably originated by some observer 



CH. IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



117 



of pot plants. In pots, from want of room, or from 
want of w^ater, or from exposnre to frost, the roots on 
the outsides of the balls of earth may die, while the 
parts inside the balls of earth may survive. But trees 
in good health and in good soils never lose a rootlet. 
On the contrary, the rootlets continue to grow each 
year for months after the stems have ceased to grow, 
and after they have shed their leaves ; possibly through 
the whole of a mild winter. In October, 1854, I 
scraped some mud out of a pond, the water of which 
was low ; I accidentally laid this mud in heaps on 
some horse-chestnut roots, which had been bared of 
earth by the tread of cattle. On the 26th of the fol- 
lowing December I removed the heaps, and found them 
full of new roots, which were aioparently in full shoot 
then ; many had silver ends six or eight inches long. 
This late growth of the root is, as I have said above, a 
strong reason for summer and autumn transplanting, 
where it can be done with a ball of earth, that is, with- 
out exposing the roots to drought. 

We may convince oiu-selves by experiment that 
the downward is after the upward growth of trees. If 
notches are cut on the stem of a tree from the root to 
the setting on of the first branches, the new growth 
over the scars will be when the tree is ceasing to shoot. 
The upper notches will heal first, in the form of a 
horseshoe, with the heels downwards ; that is, the 
growth will be on the upper part and the sides of the 
notches, without any growth from the loAver parts of 



118 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. Jl. 



the notches. This fact also strongly corroborates the 
opinion that the new growth in girthing is from the 
downward sap ; for if it were a side- deposit from the 
upward sap, the lowest notches should heal first, and 
the healing would be from their lower sides. I have 
found that, if stems thus notched are inverted, the new 
growth comes only from the sides of the notches, and 
neither from the upper nor lower parts of them, which 
I am unable to account for. But the notches nearest 
the head are the first to heal, and those nearest the 
root the last to heal. 
The growth The new growth on the notches will be free in 

in girthing 

descending proportlou as tlicy are in the line with large branches 
parficiiiar"^ abovc tlicm ; and I imagine that, though the returning 
genefai^^ sap fi'om brauchcs deposits round the whole stem, it 
stem? deposits most freely on the proper side of the branches ; 

though it is 

greater on aud tlic lars^cr aunual deposit found on the outsides of 

the side ^ • 

the^branch- ^^^^ outsidc trccs of plantations, which has been attri- 
buted by Duliamel and BufFon to their having their 
largest roots on that side, is, I have no doubt, the 
result of their having their largest branches on that 
side. An exposed tree standing singly will throw out 
its roots equally all round it ; but the new layers of 
wood round the stem will be much the largest on the 
leeward side, because the largest branches are on the 
leeward side ; yet, if the upper part of one half of a 
stem is dead, the opposite hving side will deposit round 
the whole living part below. And I imagine that it is 
thus that the windward roots of an exposed tree are 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



119 



nourished by the descending sap from its leeward 
branches. 

Indeed, the downward stream of the growth in ^^^^^ 
girthing may at will be mechanically stopped on one mechani- 
side of the stem, and projected to the other. This continually 

turned 

may be observed in the natural spiral carved work, from one 

^ ' side of the 

formed by woodbine on the stems of coppice-wood ; f^^^^^^ 
and doubtless, if instead of the woodbine wu^e were 
placed spirally up the stems, very regular and beau- 
tiful patterns might be produced. Wire fences, fixed 
on the stems of trees, destroy the circulation and kill 
the sides of the trees on which they are fixed. 

Again, as far as I have remarked, though young 
1 Dots are round, the older ones greatly incline to the 
val shape ; and in all the transverse sections of roots 
^hich I have examined the eccentricity of the common 
oint from which the {medullary ?) rays diverge, and 
^v^hich is occasioned by the comparatively over-growth 
of the upper sides of the new annual rings, is very 
striking. I imagine that this is caused mechanically, 
and that it is the result of the growth in girthing of 
the roots meeting with less mechanical resistance from 
ihe earth on the upper sides. 

As long as a branch root exists, it must, owing to Lateral 

vpward 

its lateral growth in girthing, annually approach the f^^^^^^^^ 
surface of the ground, and, after that is reached, ascend 
above the surface. Suppose a root to run horizontally 
at the depth of one foot below the surface of the earth. 
Suppose this root to increase only J -in. in diameter 



120 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. II. 



each year, — in less than a century, that is in ninety-six 
years, it will be even with the surface, and in another 
century it will be one foot above the siuface. Without 
contravening circumstances, this rising of the roots 
may be seen around all old trees. 

In the growth in girthing of tlie roots, the earth 
above the roots is easily displaced, that on tlie sides 
with more difficulty, and the earth below roots 
with still greater difficulty. In proportion, then, as 
the surface against which the lower sides of roots 
grow is unyielding, each root has a tendency to upheave 
itself bodily, besides the rising at its upper surface from 
what is called the growth by juxta-position ; and the 
whole mass of roots have a tendency to upheave the 
whole tree. In the case of roots growing on rock this 
upheaval must take place, or the roots must cease to 
grow on their lower sides. 

In the observation above in regard to the lateral 
upward growth of roots, credit is only taken for half 
of the growth in diameter, that is for l-8th of an inch 
growth, on the upper side of the root. The other 
l-8th of an inch growth on the lower side is supposed 
to displace the earth downward. I think it, however, 
likely, in the generality of cases, tliat, owing to the 
resistance of the subsoil, the progress of the root up- 
ward is equal to nearly the whole of the growth in 
diameter ; and that, in proportion as the deposit of new 
growth below the root decreases from mechanical pres- 
sure, the new deposit above the root increases. I have 



CH. IV. 



MISCELLAXEOUS. 



121 



seen ash- trees growing on gravel with the roots all 
round them above the ground to an extent of double 
the length of the boughs. 

Where cattle do not come, and where the surface 
is not liable to denudation, as turf or pavement, the 
ground may be observed to be raised about the roots 
of trees by this lateral upward growth of the roots. 
Where cattle do come the case may be altered. Cattle 
use trees as rubbing-posts, and as refuges from flies, 
the sun, wind, or rain. Under such circumstances, the 
ground, instead of being raised, is often worn into 
hollows around trees : for, the herbage being worn 
away, in drought the earth is blown away as dust, and 
cattle paw and cast it up with their feet to drive the 
flies from them ; in Avet weather the earth is carried 
away on the feet of the cattle. This, and the eternal 
disposition of roots to rise by lateral growth in girthing, 
bring them in contact with the feet of cattle, and they 
become what is called ' cattle-trod.' This is a frequent 
cause of the death of large trees, or of their decay. 

If there is this inherent natural tendency of roots 
to rise above the ground, it is easy to imagine the 
slaughter which the gardener's spade must commit 
among the roots of old fruit-trees. Indeed, these, and 
the roots of trees which are resorted to by cattle, may 
be said to lire in a perpetual state of destruction. 

I think it, however, probable that this martyrdom 
of the root may incline gross- growing trees to grow 
fruit instead of wood. Tiius the grafting on a stock of 



122 



MISCELLAXEOUS. 



PT. II. 



minor growth, or the ringing of a branch, or the tying 
a hgature round it, or anything whicli checks the 
growth of a tree or branch, inchnes it to fruit. I have 
been told by one whose word I trust as well as my 
eyes, that he once cut a standard pear-tree half down 
(that is, he cut half through the stem just above the 
root), because, though a gross-grower, the tree never 
bore fruit. He was accidentally called off his work, 
and neglected to finish it. The tree not only lived, 
but was ever after a profuse bearer. It is the beautiful 
and beneficent provision of our Creator that, in pro- 
portion to their age, decay, and approach to death, the 
vital energies of trees are converted to the production 
of seed, for the reproduction of their species in youth 
and vigour. 

In the case of trees which are free growers but shy 
bearers, put them or parts of them out of health some- 
how. Dig half their roots to death — ring half their 
branches — or half bark tlieir stems. For we must 
grow fruit, not timber, in our gardens and orchards. 
But do not dig all your trees to death, and then swear 
that they killed themselves by diving. And in the case 
of trees of minor growth, top-dress them, and break 
the surface over their roots charily. 
Origin of As the generality of roots do not leave the tender 

spurs and . . . . 

the sweu superficial seedhng either m vertical or horizontal hues, 

of the roots. ^ 

but in lines forming angles with these, the lateral in- 
crease of these commencements of roots, as they become 
imbedded and embodied in the trunk, forms the pro- 



CH. lY. 



MISCELLAXEOUS. 



123 



jectiug spurs of old trees, or what is called the ' s\Yell 
of the roots.' 

When trees which have spurs are felled by hori- 
zontal cutting, the annual growths of the spurs are not 
cut directly across, but diagonally, or slantwise : indeed, 
sometimes the cut approaches to being lengthwise with 
the grain. This makes each annual growth appear 
much larger than it really is, and elicits such expressions 
as ' How finely the tree was growing at last ! ' or, ' How 
finely it was growing on this or that side ! ' though, 
in reality, the growth may have been on the wane. 

Aided by turgescence, the lateral growth in girth- 
ing of the roots takes place with a force almost resist- 
less. It will upheave enormous weights, and may 
frequently be seen to rupture roots crossing the spm's. 
But the force must be quite resistless to perform the 
ofiice assigned by the suppoiters of the tap-root. Let 
us suppose a first-rate oak of 30 ft. in girthing, and 
100 ft. in height. Let us give this tree, accordmg to 
the vulgar error, a tap-root equivalent to its stem. 

This is the true Yirgilian creed in regard to the 

tap-root of the sesculus, and may have been the vulgar 

creed in that respect for thousands of years before 

Virgil wrote : — 

-^sctlIus * imprimis, qua3 quantum vertice ad auras 
-(5]tlierias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit, 

* Modern authorities say that eesculus is the beech ; and, in 
reference to the eating of the beech mast, they derive the name 
from esca, as they do the name of fagus from (puyely. But Ovid 
mentions the sesculus as distinct from the fagus (Met. x. 91). And 



124 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. ir. 



A tap- Such a tree, in the form of its stem and root together, 
ITouidhaye should rcscmblc two carrots placed head to head, or 

no spurs or 

sweu of two cones with their bases one on the other. It should 

the roots. 

have no spw^s whatever, or swell of the roots ; but, on 
the contrary, should immediately decrease below the 
earth. We will say nothing of the mechanical difficulty 
of boring (with a sponge) through the solid deposits at 
the depth of 100 ft. from the surface in the longitudinal 
growth of the root, or of what the sponge, or the o?2e 
capillary stoma, is to get there in the way of chemical 
nutriment ; but to enable this monster carrot to increase 
. laterally at these depths would require a force indeed 
resistless, — a force equal to that of igneous action, — a 
force sufficient to cleave the world asunder. In what- 
ever light we view the idea of a tap-root, except for 
the seedling, it appears to me so preposterous that I 
think we may at least throw the onus prohandi on the 

Virgil mentions it as distinct from, the qnercus, and also from 
the castanea, in the beginning of the second book of the Georgics. 
.^sculns is probably the horse-chestnut. Was the Daunian and 
Apulian Asculiim a corruption of eesculum ? It was situated 
' Qua violens obstrepit Aufidus, 
Et qua pauper aquse Daunus agrestium 
Eegnavit populorum,' - 
and Horace characterises Daunias 'latis sesculetis.' Does the 
horse-chestnut prevail in the woods neighbouring on modern 
Ascoii? Ovid, Met. i. 449, says that before Daphne was turned 
into a laurel, the victor at the Pythian games Bsculece capiebat 
frondis honorem. A horse-chestnut bough would be a more 
conspicuous signal of honour than an oak or a beech bough. 
According to Theophrastus, quoted by Littleton and Hederic, 
7r\aTv<^v\XoQ is the Greek equivalent for esculus. 'Broad- 
leaved ' applies well to the horse-chestnut, but not at all to the 
oak or beech. 



CH. IT. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



.125 



asserters of the positive, and say, ' If there be such a 
thing as a tap-root, find one, and show it to us.' 

Nay, I am so easily contented, that I shall be 
satisfied of the existence of a tap-root if a large oak 
can be shown without the large spurs indicative of 
horizontal roots. Practically, some of the best growing 
trees that I have ever transplanted are oaks. I need 
not say that these had no tap-roots, or that if they had 
they would not have borne transplanting. 

The largest growth in girthing on branches is on 
the sides on which they have the most spray or small 
twigs ; so that branches which grow diagonally upward, 
having the greater quantity of spray on the outside, on 
account of the greater quantity of light, will also have 
their annual rings of wood largest on the outside from 
the descending sap of the spray depositing most freely 
on its own side. 

But the stem of a tree will be exactly like a river : Girthing of 

^ the stem 

its size will depend on the number and size of the on^t'i^'e^''''* 
branches which fall into it; and it will be seen to b?anch*i°^ 
increase below and to decrease above the spot where 
each of its tributary branches joins it. It is beautifully 
ordained that no branch can grow above without 
depositing below strength to support itself. 

Fir-trees, which are very regular in the size and 
position of their branches, are for this reason very 
regular in the tapering of their stems ; but if the lower 
branches are cut, or killed by their neighbours, in the 
course of time the branchless part of the stem loses its 



126 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. II. 



tapering form. And the stem of any tree which has 
been long bare of branches shows hke the Lower Nile, 
— unvarying in size, because without a tributary. It 
will appear to the eye as large above as below : for, as 
regards the horizontal girthing, the head deposits 
equally down the whole extent of the bare stem below 
it;- that is, though the over-deposit of growth from 
over-large branches on their own side of the stem may 
tend to make the stem oval instead of round, this will 
make no difference to the comparative horizontal girth- 
ing of the tree at different heights. And if equals are 
annually added to unequals, though the original abso- 
lute inequality will for ever remain the same, the 
relative inequality will annually decrease ; and the 
stems of trees which have been long branchless may 
be found of -nearly the same girthing for 50 or 60 feet 
in height. If the yearling shoot is one inch in diameter, 
and the two-year- old shoot two inches in diameter, the 
girthing of the one will be double that of the other : but 
if each shoot increases annually one inch in diameter, 
the proportion of their difference alters the first year ; 
that is, the girthing of the one, instead of being twice as 
large, is only one third larger than that of the other ; and 
when the one girths 10 feet, the other will girth 10 feet 
1 inch, which is in effect no difference at all. 
There is a Agaiust the tlicory of the one vernal ascent, and 
circulation the one autumnal descent of the sap, and in favour of 

of sap even . , . 

in winter, tlic coustaut circulatiou, or at least constant supply of 
sap, we must consider that boughs even of considerable 



cn. IV, 



MISCELLAXEOUS. 



127 



thickness, cut off in the autumn, will become dried 
throughout before the spring. But what can account 
for the moisture of boughs, and even the most deli- 
cate spray, exposed at great heights in the air, but 
the constant supply of sap ? 

Indeed, if the first theory were correct, there is no 
reason why plants should not live through the winter 
out of the ground, and plants taken up in the autumn 
should grow as freely when again put in in the spring- 
as if they had just been taken up. The contrary of this 
is the case ; the roots of plants taken up in the autumn, 
as well as the plants themselves, unless they are ' laid 
by the heel^ soon become dry. Why? Because the 
roots are deprived of the power of imbibing moisture. 

I suppose there may be physiologists who think the 
roots of trees useless at all times, except to fix tlie trees ; 
for if there is no circulation in the winter the roots 
are useless in the winter, and if, according to Liebig, 
trees derive their nutriment from their leaves in the 
summer, the roots are useless in the summer. I differ 
in both cases. 

I have observed that, if the stem of a young tree 

grown in water is cut at the beginning of winter, the 

root immediately ceases to grow ; doubtless, because 

the stem is necessary to return the sap to nourish the 

root. If this theory is true, if there is a winter circu- if there is 

lation of sap, coppice-wood, hedges, and shrubs which circulation, 

coppice- 
are intended to shoot up ao-ain, should be cut at the ^^ood 

^ ^ should be 

end of winter, — not at the beginning of winter. If g^'^of^^'® 

winter. 



128 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. II 



tliey are cut at the beginning of winter, all circulation 
of tlie sap must be destroyed tlirougli the whole Avinter, 
till the plant can shoot out again in the spring ; since 
the communication between the wood and the bark is 
annihilated : for, in winter, the buds form the points 
of junction between the upward current of the sap in 
the wood and the downward current in the bark. I 
imagine that this circulation and elaboration do go on 
in the winter ; that m the early part of winter actual 
new growth of the root is often going on ; and that 
during the whole of winter the new growth is solidi- 
fying and becoming woody. 

I consider it a proof both of the existence and of 
the necessity of this winter circulation and elaboration 
of the sap, that shrubs which are headed at the begin- 
ning of winter are very liable to break out ; they then 
suffer much from the frost. Besides this, the hoarded 
elaborated sap, which would be of infinite value for the 
spring outbreak, is wasted on this false start, not to 
mention the annihilation of any winter buds which may 
have been on the plants below where they were cut. 
When I have cut down sycamores in August, of about 
twenty years' growth, I have known them make this 
unnatural effort to relieve their roots from suffocation ; 
and I have observed the leaves on the shoots which 
they have then thrown out green to the middle of the 
succeeding January. Plants which do not ripen their 
wood, and which are annually killed in parts by frost, 
such as fuchsias, verbenas, &c., should not be cut till 



CTI. IT. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



129 



the frost does come ; they should then be cut imrne- 
diately. This not only gives the last chance for the 
ripening of the roots, but if the plants are cut earlier 
they are very liable to break out, and then suffer from 
frost. 

But, perhaps, the strongest proof of a winter circu- 
lation of sap is, that if boughs of evergreens are cut in 
the winter, and suspended to the boughs among which 
they grew, they die, while all remains green around 
them. Why is this, but because their brethren are 
supplied with sap from the parent root, while they are 
cut off from it ? Yet, according to Liebig, branches in 
leaf should not only support themselves, but feed the 
tree which bears them through the hot months of con- 
tinental summers. So far from this, however, being the 
case, they cannot even support themselves in the moist 
atmosphere of an English winter. 

The laurel is among the latest in fading. In about 
three weeks, however, its leaves may be seen to turn 
paler, and may be felt less leather-like and more thin 
and paper-like. The dead leaves will then constantly 
play the second act of Gideon's fleece ; that is, they 
will be found dry when their surrounding living sister 
leaves are condensing and bedewed to the utmost on 
both sides of each leaf. If the experiment is tried in 
an east wind and a clear sky, about the end of Feb 
ruary or beginning of March, the fading and drying 
will be much more rapid ; still more rapid in a room 
with a fire. Nunium breves are the branches then, as 

K 



130 



MISCELLANEOUS, 



PT. n. 



every Cliristmas shows us. But all this proves what I 
began with, that all parts of plants imbibe in propor- 
tion as they are exposed to moisture, and exhaust in 
proportion as they are exposed to draught. 
Best time I do uot believe that the sap ever ceases to circu- 

fov felling 

timber. latc *, but the tide is perhaps at its lowest ebb in 
January, and that is possibly the best month for felling 
» timber. Timber which is felled at the high tide of 
sap and growth is extremely Hable to fermentation and 
decay. 

Eoots It is a dano'erous experiment to cover up the roots 

should not . . 

^^^covered of trccs. Tlicir chief duty appears to be to absorb 
moistme in the soil : but atmospheric aeration is neces- 
sary to them ; and under the eternal agency of phy^ 
sical causes, acting probably on the peculiar structure 
of their cellular organisation, the roots of each tree 
grow at the level best adapted to them, and to the 
offices which they have to perform. This should not 
be interfered with. If dressing is laid on the roots, it 
should not be deep, or of a nature impermeable to air. 

Trees which have had their roots deeply covered 
up languish and die, iniless they throw out a new set 
of roots above the old ones which have been smothered. 
In this case, the whole tree may be considered as a 
huge cutting which has {mirahile dictuj) struck. But, 
generally, the new tier of roots is not strong enough to 
supply the exhaustion of the old head ; and if death 
does not result, the head dies in and rots the stem from 
above, while the old roots do tlie same from below. 



en. i"^. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



131 



an error. 



Eoots are obliged to keep the surface, because the food 
of plants lies there, though many think that this food is 
imbibed from the atmoshere ; if so, trees would not be 
injured by having their roots covered. 

I believe Sir Humphry Davy first remarked, on the That^a hiii 
assumption that the upward and downward growth of f^^t^f^^^^^ 
plants IS vertical^ that woods and crops growing on the base wo\iid, 
side of a hill would derive no greater advantage from 
the additional space than if they grew on the horizontal 
surface of its base. But it must be recollected, that, as 
the plants on the side of a hill rise tier above tier, with 
the same hght and aeration from above they have a 
greater side light and aeration. They are, in fact, 
placed head above head, like people in a race- stand, 
where, but for this arrangement, the spectators would 
have good opportunity for looking upward at the roof, 
but none for looking sideways at the race. But the 
merit of this principle is very apparent in the step-stands 
in green-houses ; though, probably, the origin of these 
stands may be the greater facihty they give to see and 
to water the plants. But if the plants stood on the 
area of the base of the stand, each would be shaded all 
round by its neighbours, and would receive light only 
from above. The base of what is called in Hampshire 
' a hanger,' or a hanging wood, would not support as 
many trees with full heads as stand on the hill-side. 
Let us conceive these 

Densas, umbrosa cacumiiia, fagos 
to be sunk vertically downward from their beautiful 

k2 



132 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. II, 



gradations, till tlieir roots shall stand on the base of the 
hanger. The long one-sided columns of green will be 
submerged, smothered, and killed below the one com- 
mon level of the tops, and the plants will be deprived 
almost entirely of their organs of respiration and trans- 
piration. But besides this greater space for the heads, 
there is also greater space for the roots of plants 
growing on the side of a hill, than if they had only the 
base of the hill-side to grow on. For roots, as has 
been shown (page 86), have the power of following 
the surface of the earth, be the inclination upward or 
downward what it will. And they do not grow solely 
vertically downward like the tap-root of a seedling. 
In reference to an entire hill, of a given base, this 
increase of surface or space for the roots will be not 
only directly as the height of the hill, but also directly 
as the steepness of its sides. Taking one side of a hill, 
if the side forms an angle of 45° with the horizon, its 
additional surface or space for roots, as compared 
with its base, will be as the diagonal is to the side of a 
square. 

In the south of Europe and Madeira the steep hill- 
sides are terraced with stone walls, in order to arrest 
the soil, which would otherwise be washed down by 
rain. Here there would be a loss of superficies for 
the roots, and the hill-side would afford them no more 
space than the area of its base. But the vine stocks 
are huilt in horizontally through these stone walls, and 
their roots planted in the earth behind them which is 



CH. IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



133 



within reach of atmospheric aeration. This doubles 
the extent of space available for the roots ; it gives 
two sides of a square instead of one ; and compared 
with the side of the hill if unterraced, space is gained 
instead of lost ; it gives two sides of a square instead 
of a diagonal. 

We are not to expect that trees drawn up in the Effect of 

wind on 

interior of sheltered plantations and transplanted to 
exposed situations will grow. If we could move a 
cube acre of ground, with a young tree, from a sheltered 
to an exposed situation, the plant would dwindle and 
decay. A tree grown in an exposed situation contrives 
by degrees to shelter itself ; that is, it grows to leeward 
of itself. For the windward growth diverts the current 
of the wind, and throws it up. And we see, in ex- 
posed trees and woods, that they get taller by degrees 
from the windward to the leeward side. The chief 
injury which trees suffer from wind is while they are 
shooting. If the weather is calm while they are shoot- 
ing, they will make a year's growth upward and to 
windward. But their general growth will be only 
upward and to leeward ; not from being bent by the 
wind that way, but from all other growth being de- 
stroyed while the shoots are tender, and from the wind 
having a much greater power to break twigs which 
meet it than those which grow down the wind.* 

* Wind does not increase cold to plants as it does to animals. 
Plants have no heat. Animals have a heat of 92°, and wind of 
a temperature under 92° deprives animals of the heat which 
would haug about their coats, or about the clothes of us poor 



134 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



PT. ir. 



Effect of Plenty of examples of this sort of growtli may be seen 
mechani- in the neighbom^hood of the sea. This is from the 

cal, not 

chemical, mechanical force acquired by the wind in passing over 
the uninterrupted surface of the sea. It is common to 
attribute the blasted vegetation of trees in the neigh- 
bourhood of the sea to the saline or chemical qualities 
of t]ie sea breeze. If it were so, the growth would 
not be hurt more on one side of the tree than the other. 
If it were so, trees would grow as luxuriantly on the 
south-west side, and on the top of Mount Edgecombe, 
as they do on the sheltered north-east side, for the 
chemical qualities of the atmosphere must be the same 
in each place. If it were so, we should not find the 
same sort of scarecrow growth on our inland bare 
plains and heaths as we do along our coasts. In a 
bare, open country, we have only to see on which side 
of a tree is the lowest and shortest growth of its head, 
to know where the south-west is. And if the stem of 
such a tree is cut across, the largest sides of the annual 
rings of wood will be found on the north-east side. If 
it is attempted, by pruning out the leeward growth, to 
give exposed trees straight leaders, or to force them to 
grow to windward, they will decay from want of head 
to return a sufficient nourishment to the root ; though, 
if it is gradually done, trees may be very much helped 
on this principle. Firs being essentially single-leadered 

unfledged Christians. Tlie temperature therefore for plants may 
be taken absolutely from the thermometer, irrespective of wind. 
So that with the thermometer at 50°, and a strong wind, plants 
may have a spring day and we beasts a winter day. 



CH. IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



135 



trees, and not having the reproductive powers of deci- 
duous trees, stand wind very badly. It is the common 
error to believe that they will stand exposure well, 
because they are found high up mountains. But this 
is only where they are sheltered by the mountain-5Z6/^ ; 
and they will not bear well the exposure even of our 
low bare plains, still less of the tops of very moderate 
hills. I except the silver fir. 

Trees may be often remarked whose growth has a 
stratified effect, with bare stems between the strata, or 
stages of growth. I think this may be from occasional 
accidental blights of growth from wind. I have never 
seen this sort of growth in sheltered situations. 



136 



ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, 



PART IIL 

AEE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVEKISHED, OR POISONED 
BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? THESE QUESTIONS IN- 
CLUDE EXCRETION FROM ROOTS; SOCIABILITY OF 
PLANTS; ACCUMULATION OF SOIL IN WOODS; GENE- 
RAL DENUDATION OF SOIL FROM WASH OF RAIN. 

The food of I THINK that tlie food of plants is absorbed from the 

plants is 

extracted soil, iiot froiii the atmosphere ; but that, if the remp^ins ' 
it- the dead plants are restored to the soil from which they 

SurneT grew, owing to vegetable chemistry, independently of 

no impo- ' disintegration of rock, soils would become enriched, not 

verishment i t mi 

takes place impoverished. The two great causes of nnpo verishment 
of soils are, abstraction of vegetable crops by man or 
animals, and aqueous denudation, that is, the wash of 
rain. The food of plants is of two sorts, the organic 
or combustible^ that part which can be consumed in 
burning ; and the inorganic or incombustible^ that part 
which remains as ashes after burning. Both parts are, 
in my opinion, absorbed by the roots from the soil ; at 
least, what is absorbed as food from the atmosphere 
may be reckoned as nothing in comparison to what is 
absorbed by the roots from the soil. In reference to 
the combustible constituents of the food of plants, 
Liebig tells us that the presence of oxygen — conse- 
quently, of atmospheric air — is necessary for the gene- 



n. III. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 137 

ration of carbonic acid from the humus in the soil ; and 
Priestley and Senebier have shown that from carbonic 
acid plants assimilate their carbon (which, loosely 
speaking, the whole of the tree may be said to consist 
of), by decomposiug the carbonic acid, and giving off 
the oxygen. I should consider this as the cause why 
roots keep within the reach of atmospheric aeration, 
since the main article of the food of trees is found in 
that district ; though Liebig, and a host of modern 
physiologists, follow Priestley, Senebier, and De Saus- 
sure in thinking that after the first infancy of the 
plant, that is, after the development of leaves, it is 
indebted to the atmosphere only for the supply of car- 
bonic acid. But can we doubt that the chief growth of 
plants is from constituents absorbed from the soil, not 
from the atmosphere, when we see the perpetual 
difference of growth of the same plants in the different 
soils of the same parish ; that is, in the same at- 
mosphere ? 

Liebig supposes plants to assimilate their nitrogen 
by decomposing ammonia, stored in soils from rain 
water, manure, and humus, and giving off the hydro- 
gen ; their hydrogen, by decomposing water and giving 
off the oxygen. Carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and 
oxygen, with certain peculiar inorganic or incombus- 
tible matters, are the sole constituents of plants. In- 
deed, all organic existences, that is, the endless varieties 
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, are composed of 
these four elements alone. These four elements are 



138 



ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, PT. rii. 



contained in carbonic acid, water, and ammonia. 
Throughout all organic nature, during life, combination 
from the constituents of these three goes on, and after 
death the decomposition of those combinations into the 
constituents of these three : that is, carbonic acid, 
water, and ammonia furnish the constituents from 
which, by combination, result all the exquisite living 
forms which we admire and love ; and into these three 
those forms are by decomposition eventually resolved. 
Throughout the realms of vitality the actual living are 
the late dead freshly combined ; and from the decom- 
position of one generation of plants and animals the 
recomposition of another generation results.* 

In reference to the incombustible parts of the food 
of plants, all will agree that these ashes of plants are 

* Pythagoras received doctrines very similar to these from 
Egypt and India. Ovid describes them thus : — 
' Omnia mutantur ; nihil interit .... 
H93C quoque non perstant quae nos elementa vocamns .... 

tamen omnia finnt 

Ex ipsis, et in ipsa cadunt .... 
Nec species sua cuique manet, rerumqne novatrix 
Ex aliis alias reparat Natnra figuras. 
Nec perit in tanto quidquam (mihi credite) mnndo ; 
Sed variat, faciemque no vat ; nasciqne vocatur, 
Incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante; morique, 
Desinere illud idem.' 
These are sublime doctrines as regards matter. So is the 
' morte carent animas,' as regards the soul. ' There is,' however, 
' but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous,' and alas ! that 
the profound philosophers who held these doctrines should have 
taken the one step beyond the transformation of matter to the 
ridiculous belief in the transmigration of souls. 



PT. III. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 139 

absorbed from the soil, since they actually are soil. In 
trees their quantity, as compared with the combustible 
parts, is small ; though during the life of the tree, in 
the chemical processes of decomposition, elaboration, 
and assimilation, their effects may be very great. The 
combustible or organic parts of trees, though they are 
not soil, are absorbed by the roots from the soil ; that 
is, their constituents are elaborated or chemically pre- 
pared for the plant in the soil, and absorbed by the 
roots from the soil. But as neither animals nor plants 
bring anything into the world with them, so neither of 
them take anything away with them ; and if their 
remains are restored to the soil, no impoverishment will 
take place. 

I have no faith in the supposed excretion from the Roots do 

not excrete. 

roots of substances unnecessary to the growth of the 
tree. If this were so, the roots would soon be sur- 
rounded with such substances, and w^ould be incapable 
of absorbing nutriment. In chalk districts eternal 
woods are found composed of nothing but beech ; in 
other soils, of nothing but oak. The oldest vineyards 
and the oldest hop-gardens are the best. And how 
many milhons of acres are in this world covered with 
perpetual heath ! In all these cases, if the roots 
excreted substances unfit for nourishing the plants, the 
whole soil would have become saturated with them. 
Land plants grown in water are always unhealthy. 
Under these circumstances, may not colouring matter, 
or other substances supposed by Macaii'e-Princep to be 



140 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. hi. 

excretion, be the result of disease and decay or partial 
maceration of the roots. There is no discoloration of 
the water in which the seedlings of forest-trees are 
made to grow, while these are in health. 

I imagine that trees, in absorbing by their roots the 
moisture with which they come in contact, give off the 
unnecessary parts of this by transpiration in the air. I 
do not perceive what should cause roots to transpire 
when surrounded by moisture ; or if they do, they must 
return, like the dog to his vomit, and again absorb their 
own transpirations. 

If it were owing to the poisonous excretions of the 
roots that the same crops cannot be taken year after 
year from the same land, this cause would apply 
equally to all lands ; but there is an infinite variety in 
soils in this respect. And this infinite variety, and the 
infinite gradations in richness and productiveness of 
different soils, prove that the nutriment of plants comes 
from the soil, not from the air. Yet the very same 
physiologist who makes the plant imbibe its food from 
the air by its leaves, will force it to swallow poison 
from the soil with its roots ! If plants feed through 
the medium of their leaves from the air, why manure 
the soil ? 

It is perhaps possible that the reason why each 
plant appears to have its favourite soil is that it finds 
there in the greatest abundance the particular inorganic 
or incombustible matters adapted to its pecuhar consti- 
tution ; that the reason why particular plants will not 



PT. iir. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROAVTII ? 141 



grow in particular soils is tlie absence of the particular 
inorganic matters adapted to their pecuhar constitution ; 
and that the reason why particular plants cease to grow 
on particular lands is their having taken up those 
peculiar inorganic constituents necessary to them, and 
these being together with the crop abstracted from the 
soil by man — not their having deposited a suicidal 
poison from their roots, and thus forming cases of 
vegetable 'felo de se.' 

The organs of absorption of the roots of wheat, 
beans, potatoes, turnips, or mangold wurzel, cabbage, 
and lucern, sainfoin, or the common grasses, probably 
differ as much as the internal and external structure of 
the roots and plants ; and, besides, searching for their 
inorganic constituents at different levels in the soil, 
they may probably be only capable of taking up those 
adapted to their peculiar constitution.* 

That the proper juices, the various peculiar acids, 
and the organic salts, found as carbonates in the ashes 
of plants, and formed by the combination of the alkaline 
bases, potash, soda, hme, magnesia, with the peculiar 
organic acids of plants, play an essential part in the 
functions and development of the different parts of 

* We don't know wlietlier roots have the power of selection 
or not ; and, in reference to this all-important first principle of 
vegetable physiology, Liebig flatly contradicts himself. Page 92 
he writes : ' All substances in solution in a soil are absorbed by 
the roots of plants, exactly as a sponge imbibes a liquid and all 
that it contains without selection.' Page 101 he writes: ' When 
roots find their more appropriate base in sufficient quantity, they 
will take up less of another.' 



142 



ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, 



V wn 



plants, cannot be doubted, though we are quite in the 
dark about it. And as regards the peculiar inorganic 
matters absorbed from the soil by particular plants, 
while the land is bearing one sort of crop it may be 
ing fallow, and collecting them, by disintegration, for 
another sort. 

In this way rotation is of service in man's cropping ; 
but in those farms or estates which God Almighty 
keeps in his own hands, where of all that is grown 
nothing is abstracted, vegetable growth, by its chemis> 
try, enriches, not impoverishes, the soil. 
Sociability Akin to the question of excretion from the roots is 

of plants n ^ iti 

a fancy. that of tlic sociaoikty of plants ; and I have no more 
faith in the sociability of plants than in excretion from 
the roots. That particular plants grow best on particu- 
lar soils, and in particular climates, is clear ; though 
Nature has not grouped her flora or her fauna solely in 
reference to soil and climate — that is, in reference to 
the agreement or disagreement of the physiological 
constitutions peculiar to the plants or animals, with the 
physical conditions existent in each district of the globe. 

Were it so, that is, were the same species of plants 
and animals always found under the same physical 
conditions, it might, with more reason, be argued (as 
has been argued by Lamarck) that vitality itself is the 
mere result of physical conditions — that the different 
constitutions of plants and animals are the result of dif- 
ferent physical conditions — that the different species 
are mere changes of form and organisation resulting 



PT. rri. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 143 



from different physical conditions — and that man him- 
self is merely the final result of these manifold changes 
from the zoophyte upwards. But the Great Artificer 
authoritatively and absolutely contradicts all this by 
having, possibly from all time, and apparently succes- 
sively^ and at distinct times, and in comparatively 
modern times, created distinct existences or species, and 
kept these distinct species separate under precisely 
similar physical conditions. This is the case with 
animals, vegetables, birds, reptiles, insects, fish, shell 
animals, and zoophytes, whether any of all these named 
are terrestrial, or aquatic, or amphibious, or pecuhar to 
fresh, brackish, or salt water. And not only is this so 
now, but apparently through an indefinite number of 
ages the terraqueous globe has been thus gradually and 
in succession stocked ar d restocked with species entirely 
distinct fi:om those existing in this or in any two of the 
different periods. Indeed, supposing species to have 
originated from single stocks, the creation of existing 
species could not have been simultaneous. Had it been 
simultaneous, all animals, herbivorous or carnivorous, 
must have fasted or have destroyed whole species at a 
mouthful. Creation must have been successive as far 
as this. Plants must have multiplied before herbivorous 
animals were turned among them, and herbivorous 
animals before carnivorous animals were allowed to 
prey on them. 

From the arctic to the tropical regions a wonderful 
variety of physical conditions exists, and an equally 



144 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. hi. 

marvellous variety of species, and of physiological con- 
stitution, in all the classes named displays itself. The 
whole of the land and of the water, and even of the air, 
of these and of all the intermediate regions, are crammed 
full of organic existences. I will instance only some of 
the largest quadrupeds, herbivorous and carnivorous, 
on the extremes of cold and heat, because these could 
not exist in regions which were not replete with vege- 
table and animal life for their food. In the arctic 
regions we find the musk-ox, the reindeer, the huge 
polar bear, the Avolf, the seal, the whale, &c. ; in the 
tropics, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the camel, the 
giraffe, the lion, the hippopotamus, the shark, &c. But 
Nature is by no means content wdth this wonderful adap- 
tation of her organic creation to differing physical con- 
ditions. Like the chicken- fancier, who keeps his fowl- 
yards separate. Nature seems purposely to have contrived 
different stations with similar physical conditions, in 
order to exhibit the profuseness of her creative power 
in cramming all full of animal and vegetable existences, 
with constitutions similar to those of similar but sepa- 
rate stations, but the species of each similar separate 
station differing entirely from the species of all other 
similar separate stations. These stations are in general 
kept separate by what Buffon called ' natural barriers.' 
Besides the difference of chmate resulting from differ- 
ence of latitude, difference of altitude and seas of 
water, or of sand, or of eternal snow, in general sepa- 
rate terrestrial districts. Continents, currents, difference 



n. III. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 145 

of depth, saltness, freshness, or temperature of the 
water, separate aquatic districts. M. Alph. De CandoUe, 
son of the great De CandoUe, enumerates twenty-seven 
great nations of distinct indigenous aboriginal plants. 
That the plants and animals of such vast districts of 
stations as America and Australia should be different 
from those of every other part of the globe, from which 
they are so completely divided, does not strike one 
with so much astonishment as that there should be 
' found one assemblage of species in China, another in 
the countries bordering the Black Sea, and a third in 
those surrounding the Mediterranean.' Here distance 
and prior occupancy seem to take the duties of natural 
barriers. But however small, and however compara- 
tively modern the spot, if it be inclosed by natural bar- 
riers (as, for instance, St. Helena) it will apparently 
have a creation for itself. 

So in the Galapagos islands, of which there are ten 
principal islands, under the line, 600 miles westward of 
America, of modern origin, judging from the fresh ap- 
pearance of about 2,000 craters, Lyell says of them : 
' Although each small island is not more than fifty or 
sixty miles apart, and most of them are in sight of each 
other, formed of precisely the same rock, rising nearly 
to an equal height, and placed under a similar climate, 
they are tenanted each by a different set of beings.' 
' Of twenty-six different species of land birds found in 
the Galapagos archipelago, all, with the exception of 
one, are distinct from those inhabiting other parts of the 

L 



146 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOTERISHED, px. iii. 

globe ; and in other archipelagoes a single island some- 
times contains a species found in no other spot on the 
whole earth.' Wings themselves furnish no exception 
to the rule. The Creator hangs his cages containing 
distinct birds in distinct separate regions, though those 
distinct separate regions may have precisely the same 
physical conditions. Lyell quotes Darwin : ' The archi- 
pelago is a little world within itself. One is astonished 
at the amount of creative force displayed on so many 
small, barren, and rocky islands, and still more so at its 
diverse, yet analogous, action on points so near each 
other. I have said that the Galapagos archipelago 
might be called a satellite attached to America ; but it 
should rather be called a group of satellites, physically 
similar, organically distinct, yet intimately related to 
eacli other, and all related in a marked, though much 
lesser, degree to the great American continent.' 

But the plan of the Great Creator seems, in all 
time, and in all terrestrial space, to have gone on 
'quahs ab incepto processerit'; and as he has subjected 
individuals to death by years, so he has made species 
mortal by geological change of physical conditions. 
Nay, he has made their actual local habitations mortal. 
It is not to man only that he has said ' dust thou art, 
and unto dust thou shalt return,' but to the hardest 
rock and to the hugest mountain of the hardest rock. 
He has throughout all time made continents to come 
and to go — to have a birth, life, death, and burial. He 
wields the mighty power of subterranean igneous action. 



PT. III. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 147 

in raising tbeni into liyp^ethral existence ; and, as if to 
show their nothingness in his hands, he redeposits them 
in the subaqueous regions by the quiet action of the 
rain-drop from heaven ; or, at his will, he places his all- 
mighty finger on the mountain-top, and submerges it 
bodily below the wave. And he has always, as species 
died out, and probably continues, even at this moment, 
to originate single stocks of new plants and animals, 
which radiate from wdiere their Creator first locates 
them as far round as his natural barriers will allow" 
them. Every local change in physical geography 
works not only a local but a general change in climate 
and physical conditions over the whole globe. The 
admirable Lyell accounts most magnificently for the 
vast changes of the general temperature which have 
evidently taken place over the whole globe, and shows 
that these changes are and ever will be taking place. 
That is, directly as land increases in polar regions and 
decreases in equatorial regions, cold increases over the 
whole surface of the globe ; and directly as land in- 
creases in equatorial regions and decreases in polar 
regions, heat increases over the whole surface of the 
globe. 

Man, by his mental quahties — that is, by his arts, 
not by his physical constitution — overleaps all ' natural 
barriers.' His ' station ' is the globe, and there must 
be wonderful changes in the ' physical conditions ' of its 
entire surface ere man could be exterminated by them. 
Man might smwive any number of continents, and his 

l2 



148 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. in. 

existence is apparently confided to no second causes, 
but hangs on the fiat of his Ahnighty Creator alone. 

In reference to species bordering on distinct stations 
Lyell writes : ' In almost every district, especially if it be 
mountainous, there are a variety of species the limits of 
whose habitations are conterminous, some being unable 
to proceed further without encountering too much 
heat, others too much cold. Individuals which are 
thus on the borders of the regions proper to their 
respective species are like the outposts of hostile armies, 
ready to profit by every slight change of circumstances 
in their favour, and to advance upon the ground occu- 
pied by their neighbours and opponents. The prox- 
imity of distinct climates produced by the inequalities 
of the earth's surface, brings species possessing very 
different constitutions into such immediate contact 
that their naturalisations are very speedy whenever 
opportunities of advancing present themselves.' Now, 
these opponents^ these outposts of hostile armies^ ' pos- 
sessing yerj different constitutions^' and natives of 
distinct stations^ might, from their perpetual propin- 
quity, be called by physiologists ' social , plants ; ' as 
those of the same station are called whose perpetual 
propinquity is caused by similarity of constitution^ or by 
any of the many other causes of propinquity. 

This perpetual propinquity physiologists have attri- 
buted to the inclination of the plants each for the other, 
instead of both for the soil, or instead of both for the 
conditions of vegetable hfe existent at the spot : such 



n. III. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 149 

as, besides those which have been alluded to, the 
degree of drought or humidity in the air and in the 
soil, the freshness or the brackishness of the moisture in 
the soil, the degree of light or shade, exposure, &c., &c. 
What is friendship but a name? And physiologists 
have been at the pains to furnish these vegetable 
friends with a name from a dead language (plantce 
sociales)^ for fear their living disciples should not 
understand a name from their own language. 

l!^otwithstanding this care, however, Lyell actually 
has mistaken the pysiological meaning of ' social 
plants : ' he makes it to be plants of the same species 
which live together in communities^ as heaths. But it 
means plants of diflerent species or genera which live 
together in amity ^ as beech and holly. Physiologists 
even give us the reason of their aflfection ; though it is 
but a cupboard-love, that which ' expedivit Psittaco 
suum ;^aips venter.' 

In reference to this, Eichard writes : — ' This 
unctuous matter was the product of a kind of excretion 
performed by the roots. To this matter, which, as we 
have said, is different in different species of plants, the 
sympathies and antipathies which certain plants have 
towards each other have been attributed. It is well 
known, in fact, that certain plants have, as it were, a 
kind of liking to each other, and constantly live 
together. These are named social plants.' 

And again : ' Eoots also excrete, by their slender 
extremities, certain fluids, which are injurious or useful 



150 AKE SOILS EXKICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. hi. 

to the plants which grow in their vicinity ; and in this 
manner the hkings and antipathies of certain plants 
may be accounted for.' 

In any branch of science other than vegetable 
physiology it would be considered a mechanical 
difficulty to pass the two contrary currents of absorp- 
tion and excretion through the same capillary tubes 
of the ' slender extremities,' to say nothing of the 
chemical difficulty of passing the food and poison 
through the same conduits. But what nonsense can 
be too nonsensical for vegetable physiologists ! 

De Candolle, Liebig, &c., believe that each planta 
socialis assists and is assisted by his fellow planta 
socialis; that there is, as Liebig expresses it, 'a 
mutual interchange of nutriment between the plants ; ' 
that each battens on his neighbour's excretions ; and 
that each is reheved by his neighbour from his own, to 
himself, poisonous excretions, in which an all- wise 
Providence has thought fit to envelope the roots of 
every vegetable. When will these great theorists 
persuade practical farmers to sow social plants with 
their crops, or even not to eradicate these social 
intruders? Charlock has sworn an eternal friendship 
with turnips. The poppy and cornflower with corn- 
crops. But the thistle is the desire among vegetables. 
The amiable qualities of this plant have made it a 
vmiversal favourite. When we cut our coppice woods 
here periodically it will grow ten feet in one season, 
while the pigmy of the race makes love so dihgently 



PT. III. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 151 



Oil our downs and sheep-walks as well nigh to smother 
tlie grass with its caresses. Practical farmers nip all 
this vegetable affection in the bud, and forbid their 
crops the society of any followers or strangers what- 
ever ; though, alas ! how often, like the parents of 
Pyramus and Thisbe, ' vetuere quod non potuere 
vetare.' In this case the crops and the weeds ripen 
their seeds simultaneously (which is one constant cause 
of propinquity, or sociability, in cultivated annuals) ; 
and as they are threshed and re-sown by our own 
hands, their reunion is certainly not effected by any 
choice of theirs. But ask the farmer if these social 
plants benefit his crops, and ask the physiologist how 
dean crops and other zmsocial plants clear their roots 
of their own poisonous excretions. But these are cases 
of ephemeral or annual ilhcit love in a state of civilisa- 
tion, where it is notorious that the course of this passion 
never did run smooth. In a state of nature, where it Sociability 

of holly 

does not stand upon consent of friends, the liollv and and beech 

-'■ owing to 

the beech are a pair, and arc supposed to have a l^g^ii^X" 
mutual perennial affection one for the other. This is othe7 ^^'^"^ 
from the holly bearing shade better than other plants. 
Under very dense beech woods holly will grow even 
where the seedlings of the beech themselves cannot 
exist. ' Densas ' is Virgil's epithet for beeches, and 
they will grow nearer to each other, and produce a 
more intense shade, than perhaps any other tree in 
nature ; so that sometimes the silver supports of the 
green canopy stand without a leaf to interfere with 



152 



ARE SOILS E^'RICHED, DIPOTERISHED, pt. irr. 



tlieii' beauty. Cold, smooth-barked trees, like beech, 
drip from condeusatioii much more than others. Yet 
I know not wliy the pure water of heaven, Avhen con- 
densed by such an alembic, should not nourish rather 
than destroy the growth it falls on. If drip is poison- 
ous, as is commonly believed, it should choke, not feed, 
Eoget's circle of capillary stomata ; and I cannot 
attribute the deleterious quality of the overgrowth of 
beech to anything but its gTeater density of shade. 
Pliysiologists, indeed, (if we include the poison of the 
drip) arm this beautiful gem of the chalk with a triple 
poisoning power. For, while they do not except it 
from the general ]}ower of poisoning itself, inherent, 
according to them, in the roots of all vegetables, they 
give the excretions of the roots of the beech the parti- 
cular power to poison all other vegetation whatever, 
except the holly; while, mirahile cUc^u !^ to the holly 
these poisonous excretions are Avliolesome food. But 
that the beautiful nakedness beneath the beech is not 
caused by its poisoning the ground, is apparent from 
the fact, that when the sliade is removed, that is, when 
the beech woods are felled and the ground re-planted 
directly, all sorts of trees grow on it luxuriantly, even 
when the roots of the beech have not been grubbed. 
Yet, on the supposition that roots excrete, the ground 
must liave been saturated witli tliese excretions for 
centuries, perhaps for many thousands of years. This 
fact may be seen exemphfied at this present moment 
(IS 5 3) in Lipping wood and West wood, in the neigh- 



n. in. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 153 

bourhood of West Meon, in Hampshire. The forest 
between Meon and Proutesflod (Privet) bore the name 
of Westan wudu, as parts of it still bear the name of 
West wood, and doubtless acquired this name as being 
the west end of the Saxon Andredes weald, which suc- 
ceeded to the Eoman Anderida Silva, and the ancient 
British Andred. This forest extended, on the west, 
from the north and south of the vale of the Meons* to 
the coast east of the Eoman Anderida, or Saxon Andre- 
desceaster, whether this is taken as Pevensey in Sussex, 
or as Newenden in Kent. And Andredes weald still 
gives the name to a great part of Sussex and of Kent ; 
and, singularly enough, it furnishes a European name 
to geological strata extending from Wardour, in Dor- 
setshire, to the chalk border of the Paris basin, Hano- 
ver, and the north of Germany. The self-sown trees 
of the woods in this neighbourhood are probably 
the lineal descendants of the trees of Westan-wudu, 
that is, of Anderida Silva ; but the ancestors of these 
trees, for ages before Eoman foot ever trod British 
ground, doubtless sheltered the Druidical worshipper 
of the Heavenly Host : and the ancestors of these trees, 
again, have probably held this ground ever since the 

* The nameless stream wliicli rises above East Meon flows 
througli West Meon, Meon Stoke, and falls into the Southampton 
■water near Mean. Were its banks inhabited by the Roman 
Meanvari and the Saxon Meonware ? Andred signified iinin- 
liahitecl, Meon is the Hebrew and Phoenician word for habitation 
or village. Thus, Baal-meon is the habitation of Baal, or the Sun ; 
Britannia, from two Phoenician words signifying the land of tin, 
included all the south of England. 



154 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. irr. 

cretaceous bed of the ocean was upheaved by the fiat of 
the Ahnighty, and transformed into chalk hill-tops; 
that is (though such huge spaces of time are as undat- 
able as eternity), possibly from about the time that the 
Pyrenees and the Jura began to sprout, and to change 
from subaqueous, horizontal, alluvial flats into hyp93- 
thral precipices and mountain-ridges. 

These suppositions are at least as probable as the 
generality of physiological suppositions, though that is 
not saying much for them. But 

I'll beHeve both : 
And what doth else want credit, come to me, 
And I'll be sworn 't is true \ 

and, believing both historically and physiologically, the 
ground may be supposed to have been accumulating 
poison for all vegetation save the holly, for myriads of 
years previous to the creation of man, instead of the 
poor centuries and thousands of years which I have 
mentioned. Yet nothing can be more flourishing than 
the mixed plantations where the beeches of West wood 
and Lipping wood stood ; and the self-sown grass 
grows with extraordinary luxuriance where the beeches 
have been cut, and even under those which remain 
standing as far as the light which is let in sideways by 
the felling of the outside trees permits. So that neither 
drip nor excretion can have been the deleterious cause 
here, but simply extreme density of shade. The only 
larches I know in England more than half a century 
old, which have never shown a symptom of foxy blight. 



PT. III. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 155 



are a plantation in this neiglibourliood, wliicli succeeded 
immediately the felHng of an old, perhaps primo3val, 
beech wood, on a thin staple over chalk. On that part 
of the site of the old beech wood next the larch, a new 
self-sown beech wood, mixed with ash and oak, has 
sprung up, which is equally flourishing with the larch. 

In fact the soil of woods is not impoverished by The son of 

woods does 

their luxuriant growth, notwithstanding the quantity of p^jjl^^'^^"^^ 
material taken from them by man, nor is it poisoned by 
excretions from the roots, even of beech trees ; but, on 
the contrary, when woods are grubbed, the soil is much 
richer, either for the growth of trees, or of farm 
produce, than the surrounding ground. Probably the is there 
main cause of this is, that the roots protect the ground ^J^^^^J^J^^g 
from aqueous denudation, and allow a greater accumu- ^^^?the'^^ 
lation of soil, formed by disintegration and by vegetable aqueous de- 
chemistry. At the risk of being hooted at, I w^ill, 
however, suggest another possible cause. 

I think that there is an aerial denudation, as well as 
an aqueous denudation, and an aerial deposit, as well as 
an aqueous deposit ; and that woods are not only free 
from the aerial denudation, but are favoured receptacles 
for the aerial deposit : and that these circumstances 
more than compensate woods even for the crops taken 
from them by man. A part of the products of vegeta- 
tion may be said to be stored in the bodies of animals, 
and as carnivorous animals prey on the herbivorous, a 
part even in carnivorous animals ; but the longest-lived 
animals and plants die, and their hardest parts decay ; so 



156 AEE SOILS E^s^RICHED, IMPOYERISHED, n. nr. 

that, on the average, the entire mass of a year's growth 
of all terrestrial vegetation may be considered as taken 
annually from below the surface, and annually deposited 
afresh above the surface. Much of the organic or com- 
bustible part of this growth goes into the atmosphere 
in the form of gases, to be returned again to the earth 
in rain. Of the inorganic or incombustible part, or 
what would be the ashes of animals and plants if burnt, 
much is washed into the earth by rain, much ploughed 
in as manure, much washed into the sea with other soil. 
But, doubtless, much of this extremely ' finely divided 
matter ' is transported by wind : and although, in bulk, 
this aerial deposit is a joke to aqueous deposit, its fertilis- 
ing qualities are great ; and as woods and parts covered 
with strong vegetation catch a great quantity of it, by 
comparison, they are enriched, while surrounding lands 
are denuded, even supposing aqueous denudation and 
deposit the same in both. So, in dry windy weather, 
w^hen cultivated lands are thoroughly cleansed, and 
broken finely for sowing, great quantities, even of soil^ 
change places by wind, by which exposed spots are 
impoverished, and sheltered spots enriched. 

Tins denudation of soil is visible ; so is the deposit 
of leaves. There are spots on which leaves are never 
allowed to rest, and others which every year catch 
large quantities. Ponds fill up even in man's short ex- 
istence, and must be emptied if they are intended to 
serve as ponds. This happens whether ponds have a 
run of a stream through them, or a run of rain into 



PT. III. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 157 



tliem, or no run at all into them. In the last case 
aerial deposit will fill them, chiefly with leaves. But 
in all cases aerial deposit forms a great item in filling 
ponds. 

For the rest, my aerial fancy will be voted incred- Aqueous 

denudation 

ible, because, farther than this, it is invisible. Yet is^^^^iver- 

' ' ' sa], and is 

great effects come from causes which are not very oniy'S^t'he^ 
visible ; and some people would stare (and among them, teents 

and rivers. 

perhaps,Professor Sedgwick), if you told them that the 
top of the same Hampshire hill is on one side moving 
to the German Ocean through the medium of the 
Thames, and on the other side to the English Channel 
by the Itch en. Yet from all sides of the tops of these 
hills, and from all sides of every height on the globe, 
there are dry river beds, down w^hich soil flows when- 
ever rain is heavy enough to rim : and all the infinite 
ramifications of these dry rivers, or ravines, or gorges, 
or gullets, or combs, or chines, or bottoms, or vales, or 
dales, or deans, or lavants (qu. from labens), by what- 
ever name they, or any parts of them are locally called, 
all have descents graduated by water, and outlets to the 
running rivers (if not to the sea), without any abrupt 
junction of the lower ends of the dry valleys with the 
upper ends of the river valleys ; and no drop of rain 
runs an inch on the surface of the earth without, as far 
as it goes, setting some soil forward on its road to the 
sea. And it w^on't run back again. No return tickets 
are given. It will wait there, and go on by the 
nex't-rain, The very soil on which we tread, an(J 



158 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. in. 

which we cultivate, may be said to be on its road from 
the hill to the sea. This is no new doctrine. Lyell 
quotes Pythagoras for it through the medium of Ovid, 

Eluvie mons est deductus in seqnor. 

Soil, which is the disintegration or detritus of rocks 
(I use the term rocks in the wide, geological sense), is 
in perpetual formation over the whole surface of the 
earth ; and from the whole surface of the earth it is in 
perpetual movement, by the wash of the rain, to the 
bottom of the sea. 

This paragraph was scarcely printed in the second 
edition of this book before I had an opportunity of 
seeing the surface-water flow from the two sides of 
Filmere Hill, as I have supposed the soil to do. Frost 
set in a day or two before Christmas 1853, and a great 
quantity of snow fell. In the night of Friday, the 
6th of January 1854, a rapid thaw began, with heavy 
rain. I went from Eotherfield to Brookwood on 
Saturday. Owing to the hard frost, the ground ab- 
sorbed no water. It stood on the high road through 
East Tisted more than a foot deep, being dammed up 
by the cross road. Thence it flowed into the lavant 
from Faringdon by Chawton and Maiden Lane to the 
east of Alton into the Wey and Thames. In following 
the high road from Tisted up the north-east side of 
Filmere Hill, I saw a continuous stream along the 
valley, from near Ashen Wood. Where the valley 
was crossed by the new enclosures of West Tisted 



rr. nr. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 159 

Common the water was ponded back into lakes till 
it flowed over the banks on which these fences stand. 
On descending the south-west side of Filmere Hill, I 
came to a stream below the ' Horse-shoes,' which con- 
tinued along the Dean to Bramdean, and through the 
lavant between there and Cheriton to Tichborne and 
Southampton. The streams of these two usually dry 
trunk valleys were joined by very strong streams from 
their usually dry branch valleys. 

In opposition to Professor Sedgwick's opinions, 
that ' Torrents and rivers act upon lines only^' while 
vegetable growth and deposit are universal, tlie area 
of aqueous denudation, or the wash of rain water, 
which is carried off by rivers, is still more universal 
than the area of vegetation. The disintegration of 
the barest rocks, of the barest mountain-ridges, 
beyond the pale of vegetation, is washed by rain to 
the plant-clothed hill-side below. Nay, even from the 
mountain-top clad with eternal snow, the descent of 
this en masse, the avalanche, and the glacier, bring 
down debris with them to be disintegrated below. 
Indeed, glaciers bring their huge quota ready-ground 
for exportation ; and if my admiration and reverence 
for the great master would allow me, I should say that 
Lyell made an error m admitting this vast error of the 
Professor's; that is (though Lyell controverts Sedg- 
wick's opinions), in allowing the expression which I 
have marked to pass current. Nay, as regards the 
formation of valleys, I would actually impugn some 



160 AEE SOILS ENEICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. irr, 

favoiuite doctrines of the great Lyell himself, though 
the doing so I feel to be as audacious a sacrilege as if 
I were to atta'^k an astronomical opinion of Newton's. 

It is true that the direct action in waste and denu- 
dation of torrents and rivers is on lines only : and 
were it not for the atmospheric disintegration and the 
lateral wash of rain, this their direct action would only 
cut ravines and channels to the sea ; that is, where a 
spring issues high up the rocky mountain-side it will 
cut a deep ravine, and the deeper it cuts, the more 
springs it will lay open. But what widens this ravine 
into a broad valley with gently sloping sides ? The 
lateral wash of rain into the longitudinal valley. 

And what forms the broad valley even where there 
is no river at the bottom ? or within many miles ? 
The longitudinal scooping power of the concentrated 
rush of rain which in no respect differs from that of 
the torrent, except in its being a hundredfold more 
pOYv^erful than the torrent. It is indeed intermittent : 
so is the real scooping force of the torrent ; for tor- 
rents only really excavate when swollen by rain. A 
torrent swollen by rain to perhaps twenty times the 
volume of its usual spring water, and hurhng frag- 
ments of rocks along of all sizes, is in point of exca- 
vating and destructive power as much more formidable 
than its usual self, as a shotted gun is more formidable 
than an unshotted gun. We never see the clear tor- 
rent set its rocky ammunition in movement, though 
the shape of this ammunition tells us how often, and 



PT. IK. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 161 



for what distances, it has been projected. But when 
the torrent is turbid with the wash of rain, we can 
hear its huge cannon-ball s ratthng down, and grinding 
each other and tlieir rocky bed and banks till what 
has started from the mountain's brow as a huge rock 
arrives at the sea in the form of pebbles, or of sand. 
For although, as the flood of rain subsides, tlie flow of 
boulder-stones ceases, this is only for a time : each rain 
sets them on a stage on their journey, as, in lower 
levels and gentler gradients, I have said of soil, and 
the more minute particles formed by disintegration and 
vegetable chemistry. 

A very slight difference in hardness of surface, or 
thickness of vegetation, at the brow of the hill may 
concentrate the wash of rain into a stream ; this forms 
a channel, which is fed by rain from its sides. And 
though all possible natural accidents of this sort might 
have been supposed to have taken place long ago in all 
but volcanic, or newly raised regions, Lyell, quoting 
Sir T. D. Lander's account of the great floods in 
Morayshire, August 1829, says; 'Some new ravines 
were formed on the sides of mountains where no 
streams had previously flowed,'* and ancient river 
channels which had never been filled from time imme 
morial gave passage to a copious flood.' 

And again, Lyell, in giving an account of the 
formation of new ravines by heavy rains on the 28th 

* ' Quodqne fait campus, vallem decnrsus aquarum 
Fecit.' 

M 



162 



AKE SOILS EXRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. in. 



of August, 1826, in the White Mountains in New 
Hampshire, says : ' The natural excavations com- 
menced generally in a trench a few yards in depth, 
and a few rods in width, and descended the moun- 
tains, widening and deepening till they became vast 
chasms.' This was the effect of one continuous heavy 
rain. 

And in the present day we may see ravines begun 
by the accidental results of many operations of man. 
A hedge or ditch, a pathway, or waggon- way may 
commence the furrow on the mountain's brow, nay, 
even on downs wiiich are covered with the closest 
greensward : and how many of our byeroads and lanes 
become ravines ! 

Indeed, as the long conduits whose gradients are 
laid by the wash of rain very generally become the 
roads or lines of traffic of man, so, vice versa, the 
roads or lines of traffic of man, on or near declivities, 
very generally become conduits for the wash of rain. 
Hence our ' sunk lanes ' and ' sunk roads.' 

In fact, the moment roads or lanes leave the line of 
the valley, the moment they cross the hills from one 
valley to another, that m.oment they become more or 
less sunk roads. And this ' more or less ' depends on 
the steepness of the hills. That is, the steeper the 
hill the deeper the sinking of the road. The reason 
is that roads on declivities are channels for the wash 
of rain, and they partake of the nature of narrow 
valleys or ravines. Witliout great care, this sinking 



PT. irr. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 163 



of the road, as conipared with the ground tlirough 
which it goes, will continue even after the road is 
gravelled or stoned : because in proportion as the sur- 
face of declivities is liard and imporous, the wash of 
rain and its power accumulate. So that, although 
declivities whose surfaces are soft are from this reason 
more easily abraded, — by their porousness, which is 
generally a consequence of their softness, they are to 
a certain extent protected from denudation. 

The deposit from the wash of rain on each side of 
all level roads is soon covered with growth ; it then 
also catches the dust or deposit from the air, and, 
unless the pickaxe and shovel are constantly at work, 
the drainage of a road is soon choked up. 

As long as the sea or a river acts on the foot of a 
cliff, it remains a precipice, for the undermining water 
acts more rapidly than disintegration and ivash, and 
clears away all that falls. Abstract this power, and 
the chfF has a tendency to conform to the slope, that 
is, to the wash of the hill above it, both at its brow 
and at its foot. For what is washed down the hill and 
off its brow will lie at the foot of the cliff as a talus 
or shelving bank ; and what was the mid clifT gra- 
dually becomes the sole cliff. But this will eventually 
disappear into one slope. If the top of the clifF is 
table-land, or slopes from it, the cliff will waste much 
more slowly by disintegration, and the action of the 
elements But supposing such a clilf to be all of the 
same material, I think the brow has a tendency to 

M 2 



164 ARE SOILS EXRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. m. 

disappear most quickly, possibly from a freer access 
and action of rain water in disintegration, and possi- 
bly also from roots inserting themselves in crevices, 
and, by turgescence, detaching blocks bodily. Besides 
this, roots in decay generate carbonic acid, which is a 
great disintegrator. Independently of porousness^ vol- 
canic cones are milikely to have ravines or gullies, 
since their shape tends to diffuse, instead of to concen- 
trate, any run of water. In fact, the tendency of dis- 
integration and the wash of rain would be to form 
cones out of single hills, and ridges out of chains of 
hills, with projecting spurs, each spur being itself a 
ridge, ending in a half-cone : and even these ridges 
are so studded with cones as to have a serrated or 
saw-hke outline, and to have earned the modern 
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian name of sierra, or 
serra, and to have originated the Latin expression of 
21 er jug a montium ; the very name of hills being taken 
from the yohe-YikQ appearance of contiguous cones. 

For this reason, though, as Sir Humphry Davy . 
finely remarks, no work of mortal can be immortal, 
those works of man which approach nearest to immor- 
tality are cones,- — the pyramid, the tumulus, and the 
cairn. Why do the imher edax and the fuga temporum 
pass with so hght a touch over these ? Because they 
begin with a form which others end in,— a form which 
is not deformed even by disintegration and the wash 
of rain. 

Iq comparison to the broad waste from the wash of 



PT. nr. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 165 

rain, the waste by tlie direct action of rivers may be 
reckoned as nothing ; and even this waste by the 
direct action of rivers takes place, I might say, entirely 
when they are flooded by rain. The real main geo- 
Icgical work of rivers is indirect ; that is, the carrying 
off the traffic brought to them by the wash of rain : 
and they carry this mighty traffic for the entire ter- 
restrial surface of the globe ; at least, their channels 
do. 

And the channels of most rivers would exist 
whether the rivers existed or not, as in the south 
you constantly see river beds dry, or almost dry, ex- 
cept when filled by the superficial I'un of rain, or the 
thawing of mountain snow ; and the size of the chan- 
nels of all torrents and rivers (except in alluvial parts, 
for a reason which will be given) is in proportion 
to the heavy floods of rain which occasionally rush 
through them, not to the comparatively small volume 
of spring w^ater which always flows down them. 

Lyell, quoting Mr. Everest, calculates that in the 
rainy season (four months) the Ganges discharges into 
the sea a weight of earth equal to fifty- six great Pyra- 
mids ; and in the other eight months only the weight 
of four Pyramids. Now, if Professor Sedgwick will 
only grant us these four Pyramids for the snows of 
the Himalaya, we shall have an annual superficial wash 
of soil amounting in weight to sixty Pyramids. This 
is the ordinary and annual work resulting from the 
operation of ordinary and annual rains on one river 



166 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. iii. 



basin. But how many extraordinary floods, the result 
of extraordinary rains, have passed over the Ganges ! 

Does Professor Sedg^wick think that all this soil 
Gomes every year from the erosion of the banks of 
tlie Ganges, or even from the valley of the Ganges ? 
If it did, the valley of the Ganges would soon be barer 
of soil than its declivities. The soil comes from a 
great part of. all the tops, and from all the sides, of 
all the declivities of all the myriads of valleys ramify- 
ing from all the tributary valleys of the valley of the 
Ganges ; and what has passed into the sea in the forma- 
tion of the valley is a mere nothing to what has passed 
down the valley, and does now pass down it, from 
the denudation of these infinitely extended surfaces hy 
rain. In the rainy season there is, perhaps, a body of 
surface water which flows down the vale to the sea in 
volume fifteen times as great as the spring water ; and 
were every spring of the Ganges permanently dried 
up, the vale would still be flooded every year by a 
stream in volume only less by a fifteenth part than 
that which flows every rainy season now, and four- 
teen times greater than that which flows in the three 
hot months. 

The following (' Principles ') will show what has for- 
merly come down, and what still does come down, the 
sides of the Himalaya into the valley of the Ganges : 
' A very ancient subterranean town, apparently of Hin- 
doo origin, was discovered in India in 1833, in digging 
the Doab canal. Its site is north of Saharunpore, near 



PT. in. OR POISONEn BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 1G7 



the town of Beliat, and seventeen feet below the present 
surface of the country. More than 170 coins of silver 
and copper have already been found, and many articles 
in metal and earthenware. . The overlying deposit con- 
sisted of about five feet of river sand, with a substratum 
about twelve feet thick of red alluvial clay. In the 
neighbourhood are several rivers and torrents which 
descend from the mountains charged with vast quanti- 
ties of mud, sand, and shingle, and witliin the memory 
of persons now living the modern Behat has been 
threatened by an inundation which, after retreating, 
left the neiglibouring country strewed over with a 
superficial covering of sand several feet thick. In 
sinking wells in the environs, masses of shingle and 
boulders have been reached resembling those now in 
the river channels of the same district, under a deposit 
of thirty feet of reddish loam. Captain Cautley, there- 
fore, who directed the excavations, supposes that the 
matter discharged by torrents has gradually raised the 
whole country skirting the base of the lower hills; and 
that the ancient tov/n, having been originally built in a 
hollow, was submerged by floods, and covered over 
with sediment, seventeen feet in thickness.' 

Denudation by rain extends over the whole dpace 
of the earth. Its pace will be modified, hastened, 
retarded, or partially stopped, by a thousand such cir- 
cumstances as comparative hardness of surface, porous- 
ness, levelness, vegetation, heaviness of rain, &c., &c. 
Over vast tracts denudation by rain is so slow as to be 



168 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMrOVERISHED, pt. hi. 

quite inappreciable. Still there is, perhaps, scarcely 
any place in nature where excessive, continued rain 
will not run ; and this run will be discoloured. This 
discolouration will be from soil ; and this soil will be 
deposited where the rain ceases to run. 

Even where the overflow of a river stands and de- 
posits, that deposit may be subject to denudation from 
local rain after the river, or rather the flood, has sub- 
sided ; though the deposit of the river may be annually 
in excess, and accumulation of soil may result, as in all 
alluvial valleys. 

But the chief thing which diminishes and retards 
the effect of the wash of rain is the very force of the 
cause. This force, speaking liberally, has thrown the 
whole surface of the earth into ridge and furrow, into 
these graduated vales sloping to the sea ; so that all the 
broad superficial runs of this wash are shortened^ and 
are made lateral^ into these longitudinal channels. We 
shape our roads high in the middle on this principle, to 
throw the rain off on each side with the shortest possible 
run into the ditch or gutter, and to prevent a wash 
along the road, which would otherwise soon wash our 
artificial road away. Were it otherwise in nature, 
were there one plane descent from the tops of all the 
hills and mountains, the volume of the superficial wash 
of rain, increasing as it descended, would many times 
in the year desolate the whole of the lower parts of the 
hills and mountains ; and the lower parts of the hill- 
sides would have less soil than the upper parts ; they 



PI. nr. OR POISOXBD BY VEGETABLE GROAVTIl ? 160 



would be as bare of soil as the channels of torrents. 
The channels of torrents and rivers prevent this effect 
now ; they are nature's ditches and gutters : so that, in 
this light, rivers may be regarded as a conservative, not 
a destructive power. But rivers are mere labourers, or 
accessories, in the affair. The wash of rain is the engi- 
neer which has laid down the gradients of this pre- 
ventive surface -drainao'e over the entire area of the 
earth. The source of the valley is always much higher 
up than the source of the river ; I mean, than the 
spring source of the river: for the snow source or 
glacier source, being both superficial sources, I consider 
the same as the rain source of the valley. The river 
has no power of making a valley above it ; but a torrent 
of rain water has the power of scooping a valley below 
it. Even on Salisbury plain^ which is comparatively 
flat and covered with the closest greensward, these dry 
valleys, or rather continuations of valleys, above the 
heads of rivers exist : and that the cause which caused 
them still works may be argued from the valleys being 
richer in soil than the tops or sides of the hills, owing 
to the gentle gradients of the bottoms of the valleys ; 
for, other things the same, that is, in the same strata, 
with tlie same vegetation, &c., one universal result of 
the wash of rain is, that the degree of denudation of 
soil will be directly as steepness. 

Some of these dry valleys have an almost imper- 
ceptible slope ; and they might be perfectly level, and 
yet be regular channels for the wash of periodical 



170 AEE SOILS ENIIICIIED, IMrOYEKISIlED, n. rii. 

heavy rains. For if water can get out at one end of a 
level channel, and cannot get out at the other end or at 
the sides, it not only icill^ but must^ get out where it 
can- — 

Unda impellitar unda, 
Urgetnrqiie prior venienti urgetque priorem ; 

and it will carry with it much of the finer soil formed 
by disintegration and vegetation. 

When these chalky downs are ploughed up, the 
brow of the hill shows light, and the soil darkens in 
descending. If this is not from the wash of rain, what 
is it from ? If it is, the wash of rain must be considered 
as a very universal agent. 

The lateral wash of rain acts constantly to fill 
valleys. The longitudinal scooping force of rain and 
the run of rivers constantly counteract this. But in this 
continual contest, by comparison with their adjacents, 
the ' lines ' of rivers and valleys are far from being de- 
nuded. On the contrary, they are the favoured recep- 
tacles, the permanent, rich reservoirs of soil. But, 
according to Professor Sedgwick, they ought to be the 
denuded parts. 

Nothing can be more pellucid than our Hampshire 
streams, except in heavy rains ; and to look at them 
we should not say that they carried much soil to the 
sea. But throw a dam across the valley, and form a 
pond. Deep mud is instantly deposited over the whole 
bottom of the pond, and a boggy delta where the 
stream enters. This is from the lateral wash of soil 
into the river in heavy rains. We have only to look at 



ri. III. Oli POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 171 



tlie complexion of the river to see tins. And the river 
deposits the mud in the pond, which it would otlierwise 
have carried down to the sea. I will instance the 
ponds at Ahxsford and at Warnford. 

This universal portage of soil by rain, the eternal 
effect of eternal causes, Wiiich in huge spaces of time 
results in such vast geological changes, would to some 
be incredible were it invisible. But this I think may 
be made visible, oculis fidelibus. It may be seen wlier- 
ever a fence runs horizontally along the side of a hill. 
A natural terrace is then formed, for aqueous denuda- 
tion goes on below the fence, and in chalk countries the 
ground becomes white : and not only does aqueous 
denudation cease above the fence, but aqueous deposit 
takes place, and the good soil which was on its way to 
the valley is arrested. Even a slight dead w^attle, if 
kept up, will produce this effect, and, though the hedge 
is dead, the ground on which it is placed will grow ; 
and a gateway wrongly placed will often let consider- 
able quantities of this collection of the best soil escape, 
which might otherwise have accumulated for what man 
might call for ever. So an injudicious, downhill wag- 
gon-way, across fields, Avill sometimes act as a channel, 
and, catching soil laterally, convey it away from its 
proper owner. If your neighbour's land lies below you 
on a steep hill-side, unless you wish to make him a 
present of your soil, pound it back on to your own 
land by a fence, and, when it accumulates against your 
own fence, cart it up the hill again. 



172 ARE SOILS ENEICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. hi. 

The beautiful artificial terracing of the hill-side, 
which we see in southern mountain cultivation, origi- 
nates in the necessity of catching the stream of soil 
from above, and preventing its farther descent to the 
valley below, down which it would be washed, whether 
it were a dry valley or a river valley. 

In unusually heavy rains numbers of these terrace 
walls give way ; and when a terrace goes which is high 
up the hill-side, a sort of earthen avalanche takes place, 
bearing crops, soil, and stone walls in succession to the 
vale below. 

In these works man shows himself as a strong con- 
servative. In alluding to a man as a leveller^ our great 
geologist admirably remarks : ' By ploughing up thou- 
sands of square miles, and exposing a surface for part 
of the year to the action of the elements, we assist the 
abrading force of rain, aud diminish the conservative 
effects of vegetation ; ' and by fencing these thousands 
of square miles, man acts as a very universal conser- 
vative. 

The existence of upper valleys, or dry rivers of 
soil, proves that, were there no such things as rivers on 
the globe, the scooping power of rain would still give 
the same alternation of hills with valleys sloping to the 
sea which now obtains, and the same waste and de- 
nudation from lateral wash would still take place. The 
river only makes its own channel (which is much en- 
larged by rain floods), and in that channel assists in 
conveying away the denudation brought to it by rain, 



PT. m. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 173 

wliicli would otherwise travel more slowly along the 
valley, and out of the valley, by the same force which 
brought it into the valley ^rain. 

I believe that in many cases where the country is 
composed of soft and porous materials, as chalk, the 
depth of the valleys and channels scooped out by rain 
''ays open the springs, and forms the rivers, instead of 
'Jie rivers forming the valleys. How many dry valleys 
are there sloping to the sea without having laid open a 
spring, and therefore without any stream ? And what 
formed these valleys? How many lateral or branch 
dry valleys are there falling into the main longitudinal 
dry valley whose lower end joins the upper end of the 
river valley without any step or inequality ? And how 
many lateral or branch dry valleys fall into the main 
river valley ? And what formed these countless myriads 
of dry valleys ? 

These valleys exist even in volcanic countries, where 
the sea could not have formed them while the land was 
emerging ; and the gradients of the river valleys and 
dry valleys, and the whole form of the ridges and fur- 
rows, of the entire surface-drainage of a volcanic region 
(say, of Madeira), are so precisely the same as those of 
any other mountainous district, that no eye can glance 
over the two and doubt for an instant that the same 
cause caused the form of the drainage of both. 

In fact, rain, which we consider only as a produc- 
tive power, is the destroyer, the dissolver, of continents. 
Subterranean igneous action, which we consider only 



174 



ARE SOILS ENEICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. in. 



as a ties! rue tive power, is the producer, the replacer, of 
continents. And the cause which caused the valleys is 
in as full operation at this moment as ever it was. In- 
deed, valleys only exist in the dissolution of hills ; that 
is, in the gradual and eternal wash by rain of tlie 
existent earth into the sea. 

Reso]u(aqne terus 
In liquidas rortscit aquas, 

and 

Tellus glomeraia cogitur nnda, 

are as true at this instant as in the time of Pythagoras, 
or as they have been and will be (shall I say ?) ever- 
more. 

Bat in reference to the marine theory in general, 
that the action of waves on land slowly emerging from 
the deep should have a tendency to wash away soft 
parts and to leave hard parts, I can conceive ; but to 
attribute the formation of our valleys to this cause, as 
Lyell does, is to suppose that the materials of all the 
valleys running from the tops of all the heights on the 
globe were originally softer than the materials of the 
intervenino^ ridi^es ; but in almost all cases we can see 
that this is not so, by the corresponding strata on the 
opposite sides of valleys. 

In regard to currents : a current might decapitate a 
continent as it rose, supposing equal softness of mate- 
rials, or it might scoop a horizontal groove of any size 
or depth, or (granting lines of hard intervening ridges) 
many grooves ; but they must all be horizontal, and in 



PT. iiT. OK POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 175 

one direction. No marine current could make a single 
channel sloping from a height to the sea ; still less the 
myriads on myriads of dry upper valleys which ramify 
in all directions, from all river valleys through and 
to all sides of the tops of all elevations, whether higli 
or low. 

But, in fact, the action of the sea impedes the 
formation of valleys, instead of making them. The sea 
often beats back, in the form of a bar, what the opera- 
tion of rain on rivers forces into it ; and valleys often 
form land in the sea, instead of the sea forming valleys 
in the land. The delta of the Ganges stretches 220 
miles into the sea, with a base of 200 miles. The 
Mississippi has pushed a delta fifty miles out into the 
sea, with an area of 14,000 square miles ; yet so far is 
it from ' acting on lines ' in eroding its banks, that at 
New Orleans it is less than half a mile wide : and it 
may be said to act on lines in building its banks, for 
it has raised its own banks above the land they pass 
through, and increases the area of its alluvial plain at 
the upper end and sides, as well as the depth of it. 

These effects are owing to the increase of the delta ; 
and the same cause has produced the same effects in the 
valley of the Nile : for the lengthening of the delta 
lengthens the channel of the river with it ; but the sea 
(leaving out the effect of the tide) tends to keep the 
surface of the river always at a dead level. Now a 
river flowing for 200 miles, or even fifty miles, or one 
mile at a dead level, is very ill-calculated to discharge 



176 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. rn. 

the floods poured into it in the rainy seasons from 
inclined channels. The consequence is ponding back, 
the river rising on itself, overflow, and deposit from the 
overflow : but the banks, catching the first and heaviest 
deposit, grow moi^e quickly than the plain, and the last 
yard protruded at the level of the sea, by preventing 
the spreading of the water, tends to force it over the 
yard behind it, and to raise that yard above the level 
of the sea ; and so every yard raises the yard 
behind it, in succession, to the highest point of the 
alluvial plain ; though in any part, and particularly in 
the higher part, the growth of the plain may (from ex- 
cess of the longitudinal over the lateral deposit) keep 
pace with the growth of the banks. 

Thus it is that a river is enabled to build itself a 
channel 100 or 200 miles out to sea, the sides of wdiich 
shall not only confine for three parts of the year the 
waters which built them, but these banks shall rise high 
above the level of the sea. This at first appears im- 
possible. Yet every day, in every quarter of the globe, 
this impossibility is being performed. 

And ])ossibly banks thus built may tend to assume 
that slope or gradient lengthwise which, when flooded, 
would allow the water to escape sideways at the same 
instant, and at the same depth, everywhere. And this 
tendency to a gentle simultaneous overflow of the whole 
banks prevents their erosion and the enlargement of the 
channel in the flood season, and, I think, is the reason 
of the small size of the channels of rivers in alluvial 



PT. nr. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROAVTH ? 177 



plains compared with the unduly hirge size of the 
channels of their npper parts, or of torrents. 

Lyell tells us that from the sea to the upper end of 
the alluvial plain of the Mississippi (800 miles, includ- 
ing the delta) there is a rise of three inches in a mile, 
amounting to 200 feet * I imagine that this rise is the 
effect of the advance of the delta, and that, as the delta 

* This was thus published in the second edition of this bof^k 
in 1853. From Ellett's Mississippi, pubhshed in the same year, 
and which will be alluded to in the sequel, I find that the slope 
of the surface of the river is about three inches in the mile, but 
the slope of the land about eight ; and I think that an approach 
to these two slopes may be universal in alluvial plains. The 
banks of an alluvial river are built by deposit from the overflow 
of its waters. Therefore the height of the banks above low 
water at any part is the difference between the high water and 
low water. This difference at the sea is nothing, therefore the 
banks die off to nothing at the sea ; and I think that there must 
be a fixed rule for the height of alluvial banks according to the 
distance from the sea ; in other words, that there must be a fixed 
certain rule for the increase of the rise of high water necessary to 
overflow alluvial banks directly as their increased distance from 
the sea. I have seen somewhere that at Mendes it required a 
rise of seven cubits to overflow the banks of the ISTile, at Memphis 
fourteen, at Syene twenty-eight. The rule, however, would apply 
only where the banks and bed are completely alluvial. The 
deposits on the unalluvial valley must tend to die off to nothing 
at the upper end of the alluvial valley, unless the slope of the 
unalluvial valley is suddenly terminated by a ridge of rock. I 
only talk of general tendencies, and these will be perpetually in- 
fluenced by accidental causes, both general and local : as the 
perpetual variation, general and local, of the quantity and sud- 
denness of rain, or the mode in which flood- water escapes. For 
instance, in some places it may be obliged to return over the 
same ground to the river ; or, in deltas, it may escape by lateral 
forward channels to the sea ; in alluvial plains, by longitudinal 
channels parallel to the main channel and entering the river 



178 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. nr. 

continues to advance, the rise will increase. In this 
light, seas as well as rivers may be considered as filling 
valleys as well as excavating them. 

The steeper the slope and the more rapid the 
stream, the straighter. It is in the alluvial part that 
the river winds, and shifts its course. But ' erosion of 
banks ' and ' acting on lines ' must not be claimed from 
these changes ; for, besides that the river fills up the 
old course which it has left, in the change it only takes 
what it had before deposited, and had brought from a 
distance. 

The Adriatic is filling up from its tributary valleys, 
and 100,000 years may see it an alluvial plain, the Po 
running through it, and falling into the Mediterranean. 
Lyell ('Principles,' page 272) says that the delta ad- 
vances ' a mile in a hundred years.' But, page 207, 
he says, ' It is calculated that the mean rate of advance 
of the delta of the Po on the Adriatic between the 
years 12? 0 and 1600 ' (before the embankments) ' was 
25 yards or metres a year ' (this is at the rate of a mile 
and a half nearly, that is, a mile and 740 yards, in a 
hundred years), ' whereas the mean annual gain from 
1600 to 1804 ' (after embanking began) ' was 70 

below ; or it may return to tlie river by lateral hach channels cut 
tbrougli the alluvial banks down to tbe low-water mark ; or 
more than one of these causes may act in some places, or all of 
them. All such difference of circumstances, and all accidental 
alteration of such difference of circumstances, will cause infinite 
variation in the direction and degree of the gradients in large 
alluvial valleys. 



PI. nr. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 179 



metres.' This is cat the rate of four miles in a 
hundred years. Let us suppose the Adriatic to be filled 
up. In this case, would the alluvial plain be a dead 
level, or would it slope? I think it w^ould slope from 
the head of the Adriatic to the Mediterranean. If so, 
as the level of the sea would prevent a fall^ it must rise 
from the Mediterranean to the present mouth of thePo. 
This rise, at eight inches a mile, would be considerable. 
Nor would it stop there. It would be continued up the 
course of the river to where its unalluvial bed is above 
this gradient. If this is true, those who have under- 
taken to embank the Po and the Adige are longi lahoris 
damnati. 

Indeed, in principle^ it is impossible, under any cir- 
cumstances, that strata deposited by ponding (which 
gives the longitudinal slope), or by moving water from 
materials held in suspension (which gives the lateral 
slope in alluvial plains) should be absolutely horizontal. 
They must die out : the first in the contrary, the second 
in the same direction as that in which the water moves ; 
although to almost all 'practical intents they generally 
may be reckoned horizontal, that is, reckoning time 
and space huraanly. Geologically, the effect of this 
slight difference between principle and practice, in such 
a basin as the Mississippi, may expose millions of men 
to the constant chance of death to themselves and de- 
struction to their property from inundation, with the 
certainty that their actual estates are in process of be- 
coming subterranean, and themselves and their works 

N 2 



180 ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, pt. nr. 

fossil. For if nature filled the Adriatic at a dead level, 
what signifies it to Ferrara ? But give it a slope from 
Otranto to the foot of the Alps, and Ferrara must be- 
come subterranean. 

I only talk of general tendencies. In such river 
basins as have been mentioned, these operations are on 
so vast a scale, they are spread over such vast spaces 
of space as Avell as of time., they are so liable to disorder 
from particular accidents^ such as changes of the course 
of the river, extraordinary floods, landslips, earth- 
quakes, subsidences, upheavals, partial destruction of 
deltas by the sea, &c., &c., that man, unable to see 
what is or what has taken place., can only speculate on 
what must be, or what must have taken place. 

The sea eiids every valley, but never yet began 
one ; that is, where there is no delta, when the river 
and the tides have done their utmost, it is the sea 
which prevents the farther deepening of the estuary. 

The force of the river, as it dies off in the sea, 
becomes as perfectly horizontal as the force of a marine 
current ; and neither of them could form an inch of 
sloping valley. But where there are no currents to 
prevent it, the sea, by stopping the longitudinal rush 
of rivers, allows the deposit of deltas, and may thus 
be said to prolong valleys. 

' Bottle off the sea,' and all estuaries and their 
valleys will be deepened ; for the tidal part of each 
river will be a torrent on the brow of a mountain. 
In this case deltas and alluviums would disappear ; but 



TT. nr. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 181 

they would not ' go witli a run,' or by the direct action 
of rivers. Eivers would only cut ravines through 
them ; the rest must wait for disintegration and the 
wash of rain. The sea forms and preserves them now. 

From the universal denudation by the wash of 
rain woods are, by comparison, free. But whether 
the catching of aerial deposit may have anything to 
do with it or not, or whether it is to be attributed 
only to the protection afforded by their roots against 
aqueous denudation, soil improves even in woods 
which are robbed by man. 

All nature teems with carbonic acid, — earth, ocean, 
air. All soils contain it absorbed from the atmosphere, 
independently of rain and of that generated from or- 
ganic remains ; and it is not only contained in all 
superficial soils, independently of vegetable remains, 
but it is vomited forth in vast quantities from below 
the surface by springs of all countries, and especially 
of all volcanic countries, as is carbonic acid gas into 
the air by active volcanoes. Nay, beside this air 
carriage and water carriage, there is a vast land car- 
riage of carbonic acid from the subterranean regions. 
In many places it exhales in a gaseous form through 
the earth, disintegrating granite, gneiss, limestone, &c., 
in quantities sufficient to extinguish a light or the life 
of animals ; nay, even to destroy plants from excess of 
this their principal food. In these forms earth dis- 
gorges and restores what, by aqueous deposit, she may 
be said to have previously swallowed. All water con- 



182 ARE SOILS EMICHED, IMPOVERISHED, n. nr. 

tains it, fresh or salt, well, spring, or rain. Add to 
this the constant enormous supply generated chemi- 
cally in the decay of animal and vegetable substances, 
and we have quite enough to account for the increase 
of vegetable matter formed by the action of vegetable 
chemistry on sap absorbed by the roots. 

Suppose we take a mass of volcanic rock, in which 
there can be no vegetable or organic remains wliat- 
ever, that we grind this into powder, and expose it to 
the air in an open case a foot in depth, whose lower 
part is sieve-like and equivalent to a porous subsoil. 
The powdered rock will be disintegrated by the action 
of the air and rain. It will also absorb carbonic acid 
and ammonia from the air and rain. An infinite 
variety of seeds will be brought to this soil by my 
pet aerial deposit. Very few at first will grow, on 
account of the small store of carbonic acid in the 
soil. But if they do not grow, or if they only 
partially grow, they will decay ; and in decay- 
ins^ will so increase the stock of carbonic acid, that 
more plants will hereafter grow. Now, to prevent 
the effect of my aerial denudation, let us bury the 
heads as well as tlie roots of these plants below the 
soil. Every such plant, large or small, will, in decay, 
become a hoard of carbonic acid fixed in the soil for 
the food of future plants, in addition to the annual 
supply of carbonic acid and ammonia to the soil from 
the air and from rain. The carbonic acid of decaying 
vegetation will also help the rain in disintegrating our 



PT. nr. OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 183 

powdered rock. So that vegetation may be said to 
produce vegetation ; and we may possibly see in this 
general tendency to the increase of vegetable remains 
a main cause of the formation of bogs : and perhaps 
aqueous denudation may be a necessary agent to pre- 
vent the undue increase of vegetable remains over the 
whole surface of the earth. 

And natural forests return to the soil all they take No neces- 

sitj' for 

from it, and with interest : and Lyell should not talk rotation in 

nature s 

of trees dying out from the soil having ' become ex- cropping, 
hausted for trees,' or of the necessity of rotation in 
nature's cropping. Eotation of crops is only necessary 
w^here man robs the soil of the produce he has raised, 
or raises plants by cultivation such as nature could not 
raise without cultivation. Plants in a state of nature 
stick to their appropriate stations^ so long as the 
physical conditions of those stations remain unaltered. 
The doctrine of rotation is in direct contradiction to 
the doctrine of fixed stations for plants. 

It is perhaps prohahle that were wheat sown every 
year on the same land, and ploughed in before ripen- 
ing, the land would be enriched, not impoverished ; 
that is, a great increase of carbonic acid would prob- 
ably occur from vegetable chemistry, and a great 
increase of the inorganic constituents of plants from 
disintegration. In fact, although bearing wheat every 
year, the soil would become as rich as maiden soils 
always are. A process resembling this is wdrat does go 
on in natural forests, in addition to the absence of 



184 



SOILS AIs-D VEGETABLE GROWTH. 



TT. III. 



denudation. In the case which Lyoll mentions, of 
bogs formed ' by the fall of trees and the stagna- 
tion of water caused by their trunks and branches 
obstructing the free drainage of the atmospheric 
waters, and giving rise to a marsh,' and ' of mosses 
where the trees are all broken within two or three 
feet of the original surface, and where their trunks all 
lie in the same direction,' it is not the trees which are 
dying out on soils that have ' become exhausted for 
trees ' which break or blow over in wind : but, on the 
contrary, the trees which break or blow over in wind 
are the rank product of a soil which suits them, and 
which grows them too close to have side-boughs, and 
consequently too tall for their girthing and for their 
circumscribed roots. Many countries have ceased to 
be covered with forests from many different causes ; 
but the last cause I should assig;n would be the soil 
becoming exhausted for trees. The formation of bogs 
by the over-huntriance of woods may be one of these 
causes. I think it possible that, in some cases, tlie 
irruption of peat into woods from the bursting of bogs 
above them may have violently overtlirown the trees ; 
in this case the trees should all lie down the stream ; 
or that the drift from above, and quiet deposit of 
alluvial peat into woods, by suffocating the roots, may 
have killed the trees and caused their fall, instead of 
the fall of the trees causing the bog ; but in this case 
it is unlikely that the stems should lie all one way, yet 
this is possible if the tract is only exposed to wind on 
one side. 



PT. IV. 



PRUNIJS'G AND THIOTING. 



185 



PART IV. 

PRUNING AND THINNING. 

Doubtless, in ornamental grounds, every variety of For beauty 

' -vve should 

growth should be encouraged ; and doubtless, every vaHetTo? 
variety of growth can be attained by gradually and 
constantly cutting out all growth except in the direc- 
tion required. To prove this, we have only to observe 
our wall-fruit trees, and tlie forms of animals, arches, 
&c., into which trees are cut. 

In trees, whether for beauty or profit, no attribute Trees can- 
IS more to be admn-ed or desn^ed than height. But it their 

° maximum 

is probable that by nature, that is, without pruning, natSe-^ 
trees can never attain the maximum height of which w'ithout 
they are capable if pruned. prumn^. 

In the shelter of timber- woods, from want of room 
for then- roots, and from want of all side-boughs, trees 
in general grow weakly, and do not attain their maxi- 
mum height in a minimum time, if ever. On the 
other hand, single trees, which have plenty of room 
for their roots, and even coppice-wood trees, from ex- 
posure, or from the quantity of light all round them, 
generally go more to side-branches than to height ; 
but in sheltered situations, with good soils, I have no 



186 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



doubt tliat, by early and gradual pruning, single trees 
migiit be trained to much greater heights than we see 
at present. 

The works ^yhen this was so stated in the first edition, an 

of God can 

, anonymous friend wrote, ' The works of God cannot 

proved by 'J ' 

be improved by man.' I differ. I think that the 
works of God can be improved by man. I think that 
God as much intended his works to be improved by 
man, as He intended us to improve ourselves. Are 
the glorious gifts of the Creator, the products of the 
farm, the kitchen-garden, and the flower-garden, not 
improved by man ? Are our domestic animals not 
improved by man ? Is the European man no better 
than the Bosjeman? If so, we give ourselves and 
children much pains for nothing. I believe that God 
has made man in general an instrument to perfect the 
terrestrial treasures of His creation, for man's own 
advantage ; and that to some God has imparted the 
highest possible enjoyment in eliciting, improving^ and 
displaying the beauties of His creation, quite distinct 
from any mercenary or selfish ends of their own. 

It is true that one life will not accomplish much. 
But that we can do little is not a reason for doing less, 
or nothing at all. One year's pruning, by destroying 
competing leaders, may destroy what would for ever 
have vitiated the growth of the tree. Ten years' 
pruning might leave Nature a sketch to fill up, such 
as she could not have accomplished without the aid of 
man. Haply, also, others may take up the running 
when we succumb. 



PT. IV. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



187 



To grow valuable timber, we should not only aim To grow 



at a maximum lieig-ht of branchless stem, but a maxi- timber 

^ ^ maxim 



mum head on a maximum height of branchless stem ; 



girthing of the stem. 

For pruning trees to o;row to their greatest pos- Kuiesfor 

^ ^ ^ . ^ ^ . pruning f 

sible height, the rules are simple, and they are appli- i^eight. 
cable alike to the nursery plant and to the largest 
timber-tree : Keep a clear leader. Cut off all 
branches large enough to compete with the stem, 
or which grow parallel to it. Shrive the stem up 
one-third of its height. Cut all close to the stem. 
With the above exceptions, a tree cannot have too 
many branches, as the returning sap of each contri- 
butes to the growth in girthing of all that part of the 
stem which is below it, and to the growth of the root 
both in length and girthing. But pruning, like thin- 
ning a plantation, cannot be too gradual. It should 
be annual. 

A well-placed but over-large branch should be 
curtailed where it turns up, or where it forks, or at 
the foot of a shoot. It is bad pruning to leave a 
dead stump with no growth beyond it, whose de- 
scending sap shall deposit over the scar. 

In timber-woods and in plantations, the trees 
should stand close enough to discourage the growth 
of many side-boughs, or of any large ones. As the 
side-boughs are gradually and annually overgrown, 



valuable 




188 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



and before tliey are actually killed, tliey should be 
removed with a common saw, set wide for the pur- 
pose ; and the axe and cross-cut saw should gradually 
and annually thin tlie plants out to greater distances 
from each other. Timber may thus be reared without 
a single disunited knot ; and if we suppose the side- 
boughe to be taken off each, where the stem is 
eighteen inches in girth, without a symptom even of 
a cross-grain, at a greater distance than three inches 
from the centre, the rest of the entire mass of timber 
will be without a vestige of a knot, or even of a cross- 
grain. If the plants are left too close, weak poles will 
be grown ; if they are left too wide apart, too many 
and too large side-boughs will be developed. 

Supposing perfect shelter and perfect room to- 
gether, almost all trees will make a good fight on 
almost all soils : but it may be laid down as a general 
rule that, where shelter is given, room is not ; that 
plantations are always planted too thick to grow, and 
are never thinned ; that in plantations the nurse 
pianta- alwavs ovcr-lics the child. It is not meant here to 

tions are 

be pitntecf ^bject to planting plantations too thick to grow : they 

glw"and° should bc planted too thick to grow, and then thinned, 

thinned taking the worst plant worst placed, and leaving the 

■every year. 

best plant best placed ; regard being had to what is 
likely to suit the soil best, and what is intended to be 
grown permanently. In this way, not only is the 
ground cropped^ not only is profit made by the thin- 
ning, and not only are unduly large side-boughs dis- 



PT. IV. 



PEUNIXG AND TlIINNIiYG. 



* 189 



couraged, but an immense clioice for the permanent 
plants is gained, and tlie soil, instead of being ex- 
hausted by sucli cropping, is enriched by it, as has 
been argued. 

No saying is more true than that ' fools may plants 
but it requires a wise man to rear timber.' More than 
this, it requires a succession of wise men. It is extra- 
ordinary that those who by practice are annually con- Jjo^^e^g' 
vinced of the importance, nay, necessity, of thinning thSng. 
their turnips by hoeing, so often neglect this principle 
in their plantations. The principle should be practised 
from the beginning ; but if it has been neglected ever 
so long, ' sapere aude, incipe' Nothing has done so 
much harm to plantations as that, ' Oh, it is too late 
now ! ' It is never too late. It can never be too late. Never too 

late to thin. 

Can it be too late to begin cutting out dead rubbish ? 
Can it do harm to take out what is doing harm.^ Can 
the wind be let into plantations by cutting out denuded 
poles without heads ? Go into the plantation whose 
thinning has been put off till it is too late, and, I w^as 
going to say, boldly, but let us say quietly, cut out the 
dead and the dying, gross cases of rubbish, and then 
gradually and annually the worst plant worst placed, Cutthe 

worst 

leaving and relieving the best plants best placed. He plants 
who perseveres on these principles will (besides eventu- ^^g^^^g 
ally creating permanent fine plantations) very soon, bestpSed. 
in his present thinnings, be cutting boards instead of 
bavins. 

Do not think it a matter of no import whether the 



190 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



dead and the dying are cut or left standing. The 
absence of the dead and' the dying is of the greatest 
importance to the Kving. The space occupied by dead 
heads should be occupied by living limbs ; and at- 
tenuated, dying, 2vaving plants, from their locomotive 
power in wind, ivhip and denude their neighbours 
more than stouter plants can. 

Exposure is no excuse for not thinning plantations. 
There is no reason, because the heads of trees are ex- 
posed to wind, that their roots sliould be exposed to 
robbery from their neighbours and starved by their 
own want of head, resulting from the whipping of 
their neighbours. The best plants, being the tallest, 
have always borne the exposure. You do not expose 
them by cutting out the worst plants from below 
them ; but you relieve them from what denudes their 
sides and robs their roots. If this operation is trusted 
to a workman, he takes the best plants to sell, and 
leaves the weak ones to grow. These weak ones have 
always been overshadowed and so made tender, and 
when the large ones are withdrawn from above them, 
if they do not die, they do not grow, but remain 
hideous scarecrows ; then thinning gets a bad name, — 
' the plantation has been spoilt by letting the wind in' 

Thinning and pruning should work together, and 
both should be gradual and annual. By rearing timber 
moderately close from the beginning, increasing the 
distance of the trees directly as their size, and thus 
depriving the sides and the lower parts of the stems of 



PT. IV. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



191 



light, we not only encourage the heads to grow upward, 
but prevent the overgrowth of side-boughs. All side- 
boughs which are to be taken away, should be gradually 
sawed off before they die and while they are small, 
since the new annual growth over a wound is curved 
till it is wholly healed. 

All branches, thouo;h they may be said to rob that Priming 

^ ^ ^ ^ does not m- 

part of the stem which is above them, feed that part ^g^n-eoSe 

which is below them with their descending sap. The wood^made^ 

growth of branches which are gradually taken off from but', by im- 
proving its 

the side of a tree is transferred to its head, and the de- location, 

increases 

scending sap from this additional new growth of the ^ahiJiiSoQv. 
head increases the bulk in girthing of the whole long 
stem, instead of being wasted on the increase of side- 
branches. If, indeed, too many side-branches are 
taken off at once, so that the diminished head cannot 
by extra growth elaborate the whole sap sent up by the 
root, the whole tree receives a check, not only in the 
increase of bulk in girthing, but in the growth of the 
root, on account of the diminished supply of elaborated 
descending sap. Thus bad pruning may diminish the 
quantity of timber grown ; but I can by no means 
concur in Loudon's idea that ])Yim\ng^hj increasing the 
quantity of thnber, deteriorates its quality. No prun- 
ing increases the quantity of wood made by a tree, but 
only alters the location of it ; but the actual bulk of all 
the side-branches which are gradually taken off, or 
rather the bulk to which all those branches collectively 
would have attained, may be considered as laid on to 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



tliat part of the stein which is above them, without 
detracting from the bulk of that part of the stem which 
is below them. This is the great merit which good 
pruning lays claim to. 
Example. Supposc a iiurserj plant with two equal leaders ; 
both are weak in comparison to the stem below, 
because each has only half the sap which ascends 
through the stem, and also each has only its own 
descending sap, while the descending sap of both 
deposits on the stem below. If one leader is taken off, 
new vigour is given to the other. The growth which 
would have been for ever divided, is for ever united. 
The two leaders are condensed in one, and the grow^th 
of the favoured one, in the bulk of its stem, is for ever 
doubled. But this twofold increase of the stem above 
the fork is no greater than the increase of the stem 
below the fork ; and the increase of that stem is in no 
way altered by the pruning : it only receives from one 
stem the same quantity of descending sap which it would 
have received from tw^o. Nor is the whole quantity of 
timber produced by the tree altered, though it is infi- 
nitely increased in value, by uniting in one long stem 
what would have been divided into the branches. 
Throughout all forest pruning the same principle 
reigns as has been exemplified in the case of the 
double-leadered nursery plant. Any argument to 
prove that the double increase of the single remaining 
leader deteriorates the quality of its wood, w^ould also 
prove that the quality of the stem below the original 



PT. lY. 



PKUNING AND THINNING. 



193 



fork is inferior to that of the two leaders, or that stems 
in general, which are the receptacles of the aggregate 
descending sap of the branches, are inferior in qnahty 
to the branches. 

As an example of what may by accident happen to 
multiply leaders in the growth of forest-trees, I will 
instance what does happen, and what must happen, 
every year in the growth of the Paulonia. As in this 
climate it never ripens the wood of the current year to 
the end where the single leading bud is, the next year's 
shoot begins from two opposite side-buds ; so that 
every single shoot must the next year be continued by 
a double shoot, unless this is remedied by pruning, 
that is, by cutting each shoot back to a vigorous bud, 
and pinching off its opposite rival 

Let us suppose the worst possible case against 
pruning. Suppose that, in consequence of neglect, it 
is necessary to take a large limb off at the centre of an 
otherwise branchless stem ; that this makes so bad a flaw 
that the tree, when felled, must be cut and nsed in two 
lengths. Still, as long as it stands, as the root is 
uninjured and undiminished, the same supply of sap will 
be furnished. That sap will be elaborated in the head 
by the new growth which it will impart to it, and the 
girthing of the upper length of the stem will be 
increased by all the growth which would have been 
laid on the side-branch, while the increase in girthing 
of the lower length of the stem will not be diminished. 

0 



rRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



In such extreme cases, or wlien large branches have 
been cut off in consequence of being shattered by wind, 
their ends should be painted, and, if they crack, stopped 
with putty till the wound is healed over. 

To rear first-rate timber, I think the whole surface 
of the ground should be canopied over with the heads. 
This canopy should, by gradual and annual pruning, 
be raised to the greatest possible height, and by gra- 
dual and annual thinning be supported by the fewest 
possible stems. I think mixed woods of coppice and 
timber bad ; because if the trees are close enough to 
grow clean, even timber, they will destroy the coppice- 
wood ; and if they are far enough apart to allow 
undergrowth, they will have large side-branches and 
irregular stems. 

It is true that the growth of coppice- wood, by kill- 
ing all side-branches, is the great natural pruner, and 
gives clean stems to a certain height ; but as this is 
overdone in the youth of the plant, as soon as a 
coppice- wood or hedgerow-tree emancipates itself from 
the undergrowth it bursts forth hydra-headed, and 
becomes flat-topped. The judicious saw should remedy 
this. 

That a It is a great mistake of De Candolle, Eichard, and 

steT£^r other French writers, to lay down the branchless stem 

natural 

attribute ^ distiuctivc characteristic of a tree. All trees 

01 a tree is 

of'De*''^^ which grow singly on sheltered lawns, if permitted, 
Candolle. ^^^^ brauchcs down to the ground, and from the 
lowest parts of their stems ; and most beautiful objects 



PT. IV. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



195 



they are ! * Nay, if circumstances permit, trees will 
throw out brandies to an indefinite extent below the 
ground on ^vhich they stand. This may be seen on the 
side of a chalk-pit, or any other bank sufficiently 
precipitous to prevent the browsing of cattle. The 
branchless stem is the result of injury from the hand of 
man, or beast, or neighbouring trees. The single 
exception to this rule is the Italian pine ; and a most 
beautiful and a most picturesque object the branchless 
stem is ! This Claude and Salvator, and all landscape 
painters, show us. And, as I have said, for beauty we 
should have every variety of growth ; but if we desire 
profit^ if we desire clean timber, we must not go to 
nature for it. Clean timber is no more a product of 
nature than a field full of clean wheat is. Nature's 
sole mode of pruning is killing the branches ; and the 
timber of the Italian pine, the only branchless stem 
formed by nature, is more full of flaws and huge 
movable knots, than the timber of any other tree 
whatever. But in all cases except the Italian pine 
accident, not nature, produces the branchless stem. 

* In artificial gardens and lawns in general, these boughs 
are prevented from lying on the ground on account of the con- 
venience of mowing. In nature they are prevented from even 
reaching the ground by neighbouring growth or cattle ; but 
where they are allowed to come down to the ground they will 
layer themselves in a circle round the tree and grow straight 
upright, so as even to smother their own parent. Many most 
beautiful and most curious instances of this may be seen at 
Wardour Castle, especially among the red cedar tribe. 

0 2 



196 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV, 



Plant an oak in your kitchen garden, and clear it of 
all neighbouring growth ; that is, shield the tree from 
accident, let nature alone, let the tree have perfect 
shelter, perfect soil, and perfect room. So far from 
growing with a branchless stem, its lower boughs shall 
on all sides, along the very ground, in length make a 
good race with its leader. What, then, are the natural, 
or rather accidental pruners ? What pruners make 
the tall, clean stem valuable as timber ? They are 
three in number — coppice-wood, cattle, or neighbour- 
ing trees. These are nature's journey men-pruners, 
and most abominable bunglers they are. They follow 
their mistress's plan, and prune by killing the branches, 
which, till they rot off, are inclosed in the stem, and 
form disunited or movable knots. If accident may 
prune, why may not art ? But if art and the saw are 
not allowed to do this pruning, they should at least 
assist, and cut off the boughs as they are killed by 
neighbouring trees. I only talk here in reference to 
the senseless clamour against pruning — of whether 
pruning is good or bad for the tree, and for the timber ; 
not of whether it would pay or not. That must depend 
on a variety of circumstances — the price of labour, of 
the faggots, of the timber, &c., &c. 

A branch, as long as it is alive, does not form a 
knot in timber, but only a cross-grain, that is, as the 
stem increases each year in girthing, it incloses each 
year a portion of the root of each of its branches ; and 
the grain of these branches forms, of course, an angle 



PT. lY. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



197 



more or less acute with the grain of the stem. But 
tliis cross-grain is united grain for grain ; that is, growth 
for growth with the grain and growth of the stem. 
And if the tree is cut while the branch is alive, the 
branch forms no knot, but only a cross-grain. If the 
branch dies while the tree is alive, the cross-grain dries, 
and becomes an united knot. Afterwards the stem 
incloses, each year, a piece of disunited dead wood 
instead of living wood, which is united to it. This 
forms a disunited knot, instead of an united knot, in the 
timber ; and as the dead wood is dry when it is 
inclosed, the living wood, when sawed up, dries from it. 
This forms a movable knot. The bark ceases to run 
when dead, and is frequently inclosed with the dead 
branch. This, and afterwards rottenness of the outside 
of branches, increase the disunion of knots from the 
timber. But, besides the flaw in the timber, the dead 
wood which is inclosed forms an impediment to the 
course of the sap, and a consequent distortion of the 
grain, as much as if a bolt of iron were passed into the 
tree. 

Now, the great objection to a cross-grain or to an 
united knot is, that it prevents the timber from cleaving 
and working well, as the carpenters say : but it does 
not weaken the timber, or render it more liable to 
break ; but at every disunited knot the timber is 
already broken^ besides the cross-grain. 

De Candolle remarks that, as the girthing of the 
branch is at first extremely small, but increases 



198 



PT. IV. 



annually, each year tlie stem incloses a larger circum- 
ference ; and that part of the branch which is inclosed 
is in the form of a cone, its base at the bark, and 
diminishing inwardly towards the pith. The outer part 
of the branch is in the form of a cone, its base at the 
bark, diminishing outwardly. But no such internal cone 
exists except in appearance, that is, in colour^ when a 
branch has died while the tree was alive : and doubt- 
less De Candolle has been deceived by the appearance 
of knots formed by branches which died and dried 
before the tree was cut. When a branch dies while 
the tree is alive, it will indeed dry in and change colour 
in the form of a cone ; because, as the continuation in 
the stem of its annual growths is not peculiar to the 
branch, but common to tlie whole tree, they do not 
dry in and change colour like the dead branch, but 
remain moist conduits for the upward sap to the head 
of the tree. But as long as the branch is alive, the 
medullary rays and longitudinal woody fibres of the 
new annual growth of it are prolonged, and run verti- 
cally down that part of the stem of the tree which is 
below the branch ; so that it is only the grain of the 
centre part of the branch, that is, its first year's 
growth, which runs across the grain to the centre of 
the tree. It then in general joins the second year's 
growth of that part of the stem wliich is below it, and 
riuis down the stem of the tree to the roots. The 
grain of every other year's growth of the branch 
annually turns down the stem of the tree, short of the 



VT. IV. 



PEUNING AND TtliraiNG. 



199 



centre of the tree, directly as the newness of its growth. 
The same or rather the reverse appearance may be ob- 
served above the branch, if a living branch and the 
stem are cut longitudinally where they join ; that is, 
the graiu of each year's growth of the branch appears 
to turn up the stem of the tree : for each annual down- 
ward growth of the branch meets the corresp>onding 
annual downward growth of the head of the tree, joins 
or anastomoses with it, and passes round the side of the 
branch down the stem. Thus, above, and below, and 
on the sides of the branch, each annual growth of the 
branch and of the stem is not two growths, but one 
growth, and it cannot be said where the growtli of the 
branch ends and that of the stem begins ; and the part 
of the branch within the stem is much more like the 
roots of a tree than a cone. When the tree is cut up 
in the saw-pit, if the saw does not strike the pith of the 
branch exactly lengthwise, if it cuts the branch diago- 
nally lengthwise, the branch will form a double cone 
and taper both ways at once. If this double cone 
chance to be divided across the centre, the two parts of 
the same branch will on one board show as a cone 
tapering outwardly, and in another as a cone tapering 
inwardly. The double cone I alhide to, will be easily 
seen by cutting a small branch across with a long slant. 
De CandoUe's internal cone would only exist if the 
annual downward growth in girthing of the branch 
ceased when it arrived at the stem ; but as this growth 
does not cease here, a branch unduly large in proportion 



200 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



to the head of tlie tree will form from its own deposit 
an excrescence below it where it joins the stem, equiva- 
lent to what are called ' the spurs,' or the ' swell of the 
roots ' where they join the stem. De Candolle's obser- 
vations would apply to roots as well as branches. But 
if we bisect them lengthwise, we may see with a glance 
that roots as well as branches stand on increasing, not 
decreasing bases, where they join the stem. A dead 
branch, or an undersized branch, overgrown by the 
head of the tree, will cause a hollow below it, from 
stopping the downward current from the head, which 
cannot turn sufficiently short to deposit immediately 
below the branch. This is often seen in beech-trees ; 
and the groove is sometimes prolonged the whole extent 
of the stem. 

Indeed, the unity of growth which must exist at the 
foot of each branch, with the part of the stem which is 
above it as well as below it, is apparent from the fact 
that, when branches are cut off at the distance of an 
inch or two from the stem, the descending sap of the 
bark of the stem will ascend the bark of these stumps, 
will well over between their dead upper bark and wood, 
annually increase their girthing, and cicatrise or heal 
over their ends, forming protuberances which will 
occasion a consequent distortion of the grain of the 
wood, and diversion of the current of sap. These pro- 
tuberances will, indeed, in the course of time almost 
entirely disappear, because, if equals are annually added 
to unequals, in the course of time apparent, though not 



rx. TV. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



201 



absolute equality will result ; and tins does take place 
in tlie annual deposit of new layers of wood and bark 
over the stem and these protuberances. But each of 
these protuberances creates a piece of dead, disunited 
wood, which is in general nearly, if not perfectly rotten. 
This system of pruning, as far as it goes, makes flaws 
in timber, and disunited knots, similar to the leaving 
dead branches on trees. These flaw^s are discovered 
only in the saw-pit, or by the searching augur, and the 
blame is laid on pruning generally ; whereas pruning 
living branches close to the stem prevents the very evils 
, which it is accused of creating. If a dead branch and 
the stem are cut longitudinally where they join, though 
the whole branch may have dried in in the form of a 
cone as far as the central pith of the tree, still there is a 
perfect unison of the dead wood of the branch with the 
living wood of the stem, and the junction of each new 
annual growth of the stem and the branch will be per- 
fectly visible as long as the branch lived. But from 
where the branch died each annual growth of the stem 
will inclose a portion of a mere dead bolt without any 
junction with it ; and this is one strong reason for not 
letting trees prune themselves^ as it is called, that is, for 
cutting off the side-branches before they are killed by 
their neighbours, and for cutting them as close as pos- 
sible to the stem ; even then a protuberance of the 
thickness of the bark will be left, and where the bark 
is thick and dead, a part of this should be taken away 
with the branch. 



202 



PT. IV. 



Healing WJieii a liviiis; branch is cut off a vifyoroiis tree 

over an ° 

branch close to the stcm, new growth, both of wood and of 
bark, is gradually and annually deposited over the end 
of it. This new twin growth begins as the tree ceases 
to shoot. About June the bark may be observed to 
separate from the wood, and tlie granulations of tliis 
new growth may be seen between them ; it proceeds in 
a semicircular form on the top and sides of the scar, 
till the growth from one side meets the growth from 
the other side at the lower part of the scar ; the growth 
then proceeds towards the centre of the circle, and as 
the new annual growth both of wood and bark is de- 
posited on the top as w^ell as the sides of this circular 
wave of grow^th, the level of the top of the wave keeps 
pace with the level of the annually increasing girthing 
of the tree, and when the ring; closes in the centre no 
indentation is left; and each succeeding year the new 
annual ring of wood and of bark is deposited over 
where the branch was, with as much regularity as on 
any other part of the stem, nor is any distortion of the 
grain of the wood or diversion of the current of the sap 
occasioned after the healing is completed. The end of 
the branch will die and dry in, possibly to the extent 
of the cross-grain occasioned by it, and a very slight 
and inconsiderable flaw will remain in the timber 
where the living wood is deposited on this dead surface ; 
this flaw will be no greater than that occasioned by 
a small piece of bark being accidentally knocked oflf a 
tree. 



rx. IV. 



PRUXITO AXD THINKING. 



203 



The rapidity of the heahng will be directly as the 
rapidity of the growth in girthing of the stem. Suppose 
the width of the new annual layer of wood to be a 
quarter of an inch, it would take twelve years to heal 
over the end of an amputated branch, whose diameter 
was six inches. During those twelve years, the grain 
of the new wood deposited over the end of the branch 
will be curled ; after that, straight-grained wood will 
be annually deposited. These are reasons for prevent- 
ing the undue growth of side-branches in bulk, and for 
finally taking them off while small. 

On cutting across the part of a branch which I had 
rung, I found that in the course of twelve years the 
outside wood had died, and dried in only to the thick- 
ness of paper. From this I imagined that the case 
would be the same with the ends of amputated branches. 
I think it, however, probable that the reason why so 
slight a surface of the rung branch died and dried was, 
that the whole of the internal wood remained the con- 
duit of the upward sap. In the case of amputated 
branches, the internal wood would cease to be a conduit 
of sap, and the whole probably dies and dries in as far 
as the cross-grain. This would occasion a knot to that 
extent ; but it would be a knot united annually growth 
for growth with the stem- wood, and not hke the de- 
tached knots which are formed by the inclosing in the 
stem of branches which have died. 

The healing takes place over a dead branch which 
is cut off in the same manner as over a hving one. 



204 



PRUMNG AND TlilNNIXG. 



PT. IV. 



But if a dead branch is left till it becomes rotten where 
it joins tlie stem, as there is no firm surface for the de- 
posit of new wood, the new growth curls round upon 
itself, and a hole remains in the stem of the tree. In 
this the water, running down the stem, lodges and 
saturates the parts. This, with the action of the 
oxygen of the air, continues the process of decay, 
which is communicated by contact to the heart-wood 
of the tree: and hollowness of the centre is almost 
always thus caused by rotten branches from above, not 
by rotten roots from below. This is the fruitful source 
of destruction to our timber-trees, to the life of which, 
otherwise, there is apparently no necessary limit. Very 
httle care may avoid this chief cause of decay. 

It is not meant to assert that there is no limit to the 
age, or height, or bulk which in a case of optimism 
trees may attain to ; but at present we know of none. 
The whole appears to depend on circumstances ; that 
is, even if we knew the maximum age, or height, or 
bulk which any particular sort of tree had ever attained 
to, it would not follow that under more favourable cir- 
cumstances others might not have surpassed it. 
Prejudice Tlic prejudicc against pruning with a saw, or the 

pruning 

idea of the necessity of afterwards cutting the wounds 

with a saw, 

a vulgar q^q^ with a sharp instrument, is a vulo^ar error. The 

error. ^ ° 

new formation of wood and bark over an amputated 
branch is not from the cut wood, which dies, or from 
the lip of the bark, which also dies. It comes from 
springs far above these and independent of them. The 



PT. rv. 



PRUNIXG AXD THINNING. 



205 



new deposit of wood and bark over the wounds of trees 
is the brimming over of tlie descending stream of 
gro vvth between the wood and the bark, and has nothing 
to do with the dead wood of the wound, or the dead 
rim of bark whicih surrounds it. It woukl continue 
to grow over the dead wood if it were stuck full of 
nails or tenter-hooks. It does continue to grow over 
it even when it is rotten ; and when the wood has 
quite mouldered away, the growth still continues, but, 
as there is no basis on which to deposit, it curls round 
on itself. 

Since the publication of the first edition of this 
treatise, I have found an example which will throw 
light on what has been stated. 

Plate I. is an engraving of a piece of a board planed Expiana- 
down to a level with the centre of the pith of the stem, Pifes i. 

-L ' and II. 

and of the pith of a branch. The board is from a 
Scotch fir cut in Brookwood Park, Hampshire. 

A is intended to represent the upper end of the 
board, which has been cut across ; B, the lower end. 
Both of those cross-cut ends are turned so as to face 
the same way with the side of the board, which is cut 
lengthways, so that the correspondence of the pith and 
grain or growths of the ends with those of the side may 
be easily traced; and the numbering is intended to 
make this correspondence more clear. In the fir tribe 
generally, the latest annual shoot is surmounted by a 
circle of buds, or what is called a whorl of buds, around 
the leading bud. These whorls of buds become whorls 



206 



PEUNING A^^D TIIIXXIXG. 



PT. IV. 



of branches, and where the piths of these branches join 
the pith of the stem, they mark in the centre of the 
tree, indehbly and for ever, the highest point of each 
successive annual growth, from the first shoot of the 
seedhng to the last shoot of the forest pine. C, the 
point where the pith of the branch joins the pith of the 
stem, marks also the highest point of the first annual 
grow^th of this board. The reason that this first growth 
is so small is, that it formed the taper top of the then 
leader of the tree. So the difference in the size of the 
main pith above and below the branch is caused by the 
junction of the tapering end of the pith of the older 
lower shoot with the broad- based beginning of the 
pith of the younger upper shoot. 

On the left side of the pith of the stem, where 
there is no branch, it may be seen that the first annual 
growth of the older shoot of the stem below the branch 
ceases at C, but the pith is prolonged through it 
upwards ; also that the first annual growth of the 
younger shoot of the stem above the branch is con- 
tinuous, and the same with the second annual growth 
of the older shoot of the stem below the branch : and, 
doubtless, the reason that the second growth below is 
so much larger than the first growth either above or 
below is, that it has received the deposit from the 
whorl of branches in addition to the growth from the 
leader, which did not accrue to either of these first 
annual growths. Each annual growth of the stem 
above the branch will be found continuous, and the 



PT. IV. 



PEUNING AND THINNING. 



207 



same with the growth numbered one after it below the 
branch. 

On the right of the pith, from C to DD, is the 
growth of the stem while the branch was alive : and 
five annual growths of the stem, both above and below 
the branch, may be seen to be united to the five annual 
growths of the branch ; namely, the first five annual 
growths above the branch, and from the second to the 
sixth inclusive below it. So that the first annual 
growth of the branch is continuous and the same with 
the first annual growth of the younger shoot of the stem 
above the branch, but with the second annual growth 
of the older shoot of the stem below the branch ; and 
each annual growth of the branch is continuous and the 
same with that growth of the stem above the branch 
which corresponds with it in number, but with the 
growth numbered one later below the branch. 

Here, then, it may be see?i that branches are 
attached to the stem by increasing bases, not, as might 
be imagined from De CandoUe s statement, by decreas- 
ing bases ; that is, each annual growth of the branch 
joins a corresponding annual growth of the stem, and 
as each annual growth of the stem, besides the deposit 
from the annual growth of the branch, receives a 
deposit from the head above it, each annual growth of 
the stem is larger than its corresponding annual growth 
of the branch. The width of each annual growth of 
the branch at the point of confluence, that is, where it 
joins and mingles with the stem, may be seen to open 



208 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



out as the river becomes wider as it receives, each 
tributary ; and each growth of the branch may be seen 
to be attached to the stem by an increased, not a 
decreased base. Besides this increase in bulk of each 
annual growth of the branch where it joins the stem, 
each growth in succession more deeply and more firmly 
imbeds and builds in all its predecessors in the stem of 
the tree. It is only such an arrangement as this which 
would support the enormous weight on the enormously 
long levers which wide-spreading branches offer. 

When the growth of the stem had arrived at D D, 
the branch died ; that is, when the central part of this 
board below the branch was six years old, and when 
the central part of the branch and of the board above 
it was five years old. From D D to E E, during a 
period of eleven years at the upper side of the branch, 
and of twenty-two years at the more projecting lower 
side of it, the dead branch has been gradually and 
annually inclosed by the growths of the stem, forming a 
disunited knot ; that is, the branch may be seen to be 
disunited from these growths of the stem. At E E the 
growths of the stem curve over the cut end of the 
branch. After covering the cut end, the growths 
w^ould have again become continuous and straight had 
the board been wide enough to show it. Indeed, in 
Plate 11. , which is the contrary side of the same board 
and branch, the growth has already become continuous. 

If the branch had been cut off close to the stem at 
D D when it died, it would have healed over there. 



PT. iv; 



PRUIS^ING AND THINNING. 



209 



and from DD to EE would have been solid clean timber 
instead of a disunited knot. So that there would have 
been no disunited knot at all, but only a cross-grain, 
formed by the living branch firmly united to the stem, 
and decreasing^ in size towards the centre of the tree, 
with a scar at the end D D, like that at E E. This 
scar would form no greater flaw in the timber, than 
one arising from a small piece of bark being knocked 
off the stem. If the branch had not died, the cross- 
grain would not only have been annually prolonged as 
long as the tree continued to grow, but woidd also have 
increased in bulk every year ; for De Candolle's cone, 
whose apex is at the pith, and whose base at the bark 
of the stem, describes most accurately the form of the 
cross-grain occasioned by a living branch in the timber 
of a tree. If the branch when it died had not been 
cut off at E E, the existing disunited knot would have 
been prolonged ; that is, from E E in the direction of 
F, as long as the tree grew, and the branch remained 
on it, a disunited knot would have been inclosed in ex- 
change for the deposit of solid, clean, straight-grained 
timber. For that the grain becomes straight as soon as 
the scar is healed over, may be seen in Plate II. 

The sixteenth annual growth above the branch is 
the last whose descent was checked by the dead 
branch. Its distance from the centre of the pith of 
the stem, measured at the upper edge of the board, is 
four inches one-sixteenth. The distance of the six- 
teenth annual growth from the centre of the pith 

P 



210 



PRUNING AND THINI^ING. 



PT. lY. 



below the branch, measured at the lower edge of the 
board, is only three inches five-sixteenths. I imagine 
that the dead branch acted like a ligature, and that, by 
checking the descent of the sap, it caused the swelling 
above it. Below the branch, the growths gradually 
and annually diminish after the sixth, which is the 
time of the death of the branch. I have no doubt 
that the reason of this is, that the branch was killed 
by the proximity of neighbouring trees, and that they 
at the same time killed, and afterwards continued to 
kill, an undue number of side-branches, which caused 
an unduly diminished return of descending sap, and, 
consequently, a diminished annual ring or growth of 
timber. So that, notwithstanding the gradual dimin- 
ishing after the sixth growth, the first fifteen growths 
of this board are nearly three times the size of the 
next fifteen growths; and from after the fifteenth 
growth of this board, the tree was doubtless one of 
those denuded poles of which the growth of our un- 
thinned plantations in general consists. But if room 
is given for these poles to increase the size of their 
heads, they will in the same proportion increase the 
size of their annual rings of timber. 

The centre of the lower part of the tree was, 
doubtless, much older than any part of this board. 
I imagine that the sort of wavy cross-grain, which 
may be observed along the upper edge of aU branches 
which are cut like this specimen, to be the result of 
the mechanical difficulty which the new growth has to 



FT. rv. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



211 



raise «n,nd eject the bark from the acute angle formed 
by the upper side of the branch and the stem. The 
wavy cross-grain ceases when the bark ceases to be 
raised. 

Plate II. shows the contrary side of the board. 

Owing to the distance from the pith at which the 
saw has passed, the growths of the branch are not 
visible on this side, as they are in Plate I. 

On the left, the fifth annual growth of the younger 
shoot of the stem above the branch, joins the begin- 
ning of the upper side of the branch ; the sixth annual 
growth of the older shoot of the stem below the 
branch, joins the beginning of the lower side of the 
branch : these two growths are continuous and the 
same with each other ; and, as in Plate I., they are 
continuous and the same with the last or outside 
growth of the branch. All the growths to the left of 
these are disunited with the branch ; and, if the branch 
had been cut off at A when it died, they would have 
formed clean solid timber, like that outside the end 
of the branch, instead of inclosing a disunited knot. 
Each of the other annual growths of the stem above 
the branch will be found continuous, and the same 
with the growth numbered one after it below the 
branch. 

In countries where it is the practice to shrive the 
hedge-row trees, their branchless stems are ascended 
by means of spikes at the side of the feet. In the 
East, palms are ascended to inoculate the flower and 

p 2 



212 



PEUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



to gather the fruit, by placmg the feet against the 
stem, and the back against a band which includes the 
stem and the chmber. 

In pruning old and long-neglected trees, the ladder 
should be placed perfectly upright against the stem of 
the tree, and tied fast to prevent its being knocked off 
by the falling branches, or broken by them. If the 
head of the tree is out of reach, a string may some- 
times be swung over one of its boughs by a weight, or 
shot over with a blunt arrow, and by this a rope hauled 
over. Seated in a loop at one end of the rope, or with 
one end tied round the thigh, the hands on the oppo- 
site rope will acquire the mechanical advantage of a 
fixed and movable pulley; that is, the double rope 
doubles your power, or, in this case I should say, 
halves your exertion, and you may raise your whole 
weight with half the exertion required without a 
pulley. Let us call this natural pulley the pruner's 
pulley. It is often useful to reach the 
head, or to remove dead wood or a de- 
tached branch on an otherwise branch- 
less stem, or to make the pruner safe ; 
and would make a good fire-escape. 

In explanation I attach an engraving 
from Chambers's excellent educational 
course, 'Mechanics,' 1837. The writer, 
however, like others, has entirely mis- 
taken the principle of this curious mechanical paradox. 
In mechanics, indeed, no axiom is more certain than 




PI. IV. 



PEUNING AND THINJ^^ING. 



213 



that without two pulleys, that is, with the fixed pulley 
only, and without the movable pulley also, no me- 
chanical advantage is gained. But in the pruner's 
pulley, even the single fixed pulley is dispensed with ; 
yet, without any apparent mechanical advantage, half 
is made equal to the whole. This paradox disgusts the 
well-instructed engineer, even still more than it does 
the most brutally ignorant man of plain common sense. 
Truth, however, has a trick of being paradoxical, and 
this truth is as true as that you can blow hot and blow 
cold ; and it was only the brutally ignorant satyr who 
denied that simple but paradoxical truth. 

But in the pruner's pulley the man is, in fact, at 
once the movable pulley, the weight to be lifted, and 
the power that lifts ; and the friction of the movable 
pulley is saved while its mechanical advantage is 
gained. Luckily, this is not a matter of opinion, but 
a matter of fact ; and, practically, it may be proved 
by children or weak persons, who are unable to raise 
their weight on a single rope. Theoretically, it is in 
perfect accordance with what in mechanics is called 
' the law of virtual velocities : ' for, if you ascend fifty 
feet by a single rope, your hands pass over fifty feet of 
rope ; and, for every foot your hands ascend, your 
body ascends a foot. But if you ascend fifty feet by a 
double rope, your hands pass over 100 feet of rope ; 
and, for every foot your hands ascend, your body only 
ascends half a foot, and your hands descend again half 
a foot. Again, if you haul a weight up to a bough by 



214 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



a double rope fifty feet from the ground, fifty feet of 
rope will pass through your hands, and no mechanical 
advantage is gained. But if you haul yourself up fifty 
feet by a double rope, 100 feet of rope will pass 
through your hands ; and as in ascending the whole 
space the hands will pass over twice the space of rope, 
so at any particular part of the ascent they will require 
only half the exertion. 

The saw should have a loop to the handle, so as to 
hang on your arm while climbing. A rope or belt 
round the tree and your body, which you can lean 
back against while at work, adds infinitely to your 
power. 

Best tim< March and April are my two months for pruning 
_OTprun i-pggg which do not bleed. At that time branches 
have returned their downward sap for the nutriment 
of the root, and have scarcely yet begun to receive 
the new supply upward, and they will bequeath their 
annual share of this to the leader and other heirs of 
your choosing : and, the leaves being off, you can 
clearly see to which the talents should be entrusted. 

I never dare touch sycamore or walnut except in 
summer. I have never known any tree bleed when in 
full leaf. I have known sycamore and walnut bleed 
when pruned at Christmas, which corroborates the idea 
of a winter circulation of sap ; but perhaps we have 
an undue horror of bleeding from pruning. The 
southern vineyards are always pruned in the bleeding 
season : and the more freely they bleed, the better the 



PT. lY. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



215 



sign. In England I once watched the bleeding of a 
vine, which was trained to the top of a high garden 
wall. The lowest wounds bled first, and it was about 
a week before the bleeding reached the upper wounds. 
By this time the lower wounds were ceasing to bleed. 
The sap which ran was as clear as water, but a thick 
sediment accrued over each wound, like soft-boiled 
white of egg, and apparently this, stopped the bleed- 
ing, as the gluten of our blood will in our wounds, if 
it is not wiped off under the idea of staunching the 
wound. The resinous sap of fir-trees, instead of run- 
ning off, remains adhering in white drops or streams ; 
by which, I think, the pruner is in general more 
frightened than the tree is hurt. Supposing the branch 
to have been de trop, it would have used, or rather 
misused, every year a hundred times as much sap as 
for once only the tree loses by bleeding. I object to 
autumnal pruning, because the boughs are full of 
elaborated sap due to the root. These observations 
apply to pruning hardy forest-trees for wood^ not to 
pruning for findt. 

The largest sound tree I have ever measured is Measure- 
' the grindstone oak ' in the Holt Forest.* It is thirty- SngevSy 

, of treea. 

five feet in girthing at tnree feet from the ground. It 
is dead, and was apparently lately dead when I first 
saw it, since the bark was still on it : I think it has 
been originally a pollard {polled or headed) ; and the 

* Unhappily burnt by a thoughtless boy some 5th of Kovember, 
since this was published in 1844. 



216 



PEUmNG AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



largest sound timber I have ever seen in England has 
been old pollards, allowed to grow up in our forest 
grounds after the pollard system had ceased. They 
were probably allowed to grow because, being many- 
headed, their timber was not valuable. 

Such trees, I believe, continue to exist for cen- 
turies, perhaps for thousands of years ; even after they 
are hollow. The old pollards which grace our forest- 
grounds and commons were probably headed as young 
trees, and their growth cut periodically, as our under- 
wood is now, the browsing of the deer and cattle 
necessitating in such places this sort of aerial coppice- 
w^ood. Charcoal was generally used before coal ; and 
I think that the old pollards and the black circles of 
earth about Eotherfield, in this neighbourhood, may 
both be remains of the charcoal-burners of the forest 
called by the Eomans Anderida Silva, and by the 
Saxons Andredes Weald. 

However the heads of these pollards may be lopped, 
every year of life adds one ring of new wood and bark 
to the girthing of the stem. The same takes place 
when the tree is perfectly hollow. The inside dead 
wood, being dry and imporous, prevents the bleeding 
or efflux of the sap, I have found the girthing of 
some of these relics of the olden time much greater 
than the girthing of any sound timber I have ever 
measured, though probably the pollards never girthed 
large as sound trees. Even when the circle is broken, 
and they stand like detached strips of bark, the new 



PI. IV. 



PRUXK\G Ax\D TIIINXING. 



217 



deposit of wood and bark takes place on their outside, 
-while their inside is sloughing, or rotting off, and these 
detached strips gradually and annually progress out- 
wards from where the centre of the tree was. 

When old pollards are cut over, they throw out 
new branches most vigorously, which militates against 
the theory that all new branches are from original 
latent buds, and from the central pith ; since old pol- 
lards may be found not only destitute of central pith, 
but the oldest part of whose stem-wood is possibly not 
ten years of age. So that the casuist might raise the 
question whether these, our supposed oldest trees, are 
not actually among our youngest ; as the identity of 
the sliip Argo was disputed when, from constant 
gradual repair in the temple where it was preserved, 
every part of the old ship had disappeared and had 
been replaced. Nay, since whilst a pollard is becom- 
ing hollow the internal decay surpasses the external 
growth, it may be said to become younger by age ; 
and when decay and growth balance each other, that 
age, or the addition of years, makes it no older. 

The great secret of large timber is, centuries of 
non -cutting down, good soil, room, and sheltered 
situation. These conditions rarely come together in 
cultivated countries, though they do sometimes in our 
old family places. The free growth and the enormous 
measurements of trees in the forests of uncultivated 
countries are more frequently to be attributed to the 
concurrence of the favourable conditions above s^^ated, 



218 



PEUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



than to the peculiar attributes of the trees themselves. 
Such trees, when imported, and planted on the poor 
soils and exposed situations which are alone planted in 
cultivated countries, make moderate progress, and 
never reach any size. 

As long as countries are in a state of nature, trees, 
being the original possessors, seize on the valleys and 
best soils, from which they actually exclude man and 
cultivation. But the case is reversed when man has 
cleared the best soils for cultivation. Trees are then 
seldom planted or suffered to grow except on soils so 
bad as not to pay for cultivation. 

I have received the following marvellous measure- 
ments of some pinus Lambertianas on the Columbia, 
from an authority that I cannot doubt. At eight feet 
from the ground they were fifteen feet in diameter. 
The stems were branchless to two hundred and fifty 
feet from the ground, and were there thirteen feet in 
diameter. If the new annual ring of wood were a 
quarter of an inch wide, trees would attain this dia- 
meter in three hundred and sixty years ; and, sup- 
posing them to have grown a foot a year in height, 
this would allow them eighty feet of head above the 
branchless stem. 

These measurements, which I called marvellous in 
the first edition of this treatise, are (together with the 
guesses in reference to the age of the trees) rather put 
in the shade by the following. Adanson measured a 
baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) to be thirty feet in 



TT. lY. 



PKUNING AND THINNING. 



219 



diameter, and gives it the astounding and patriarchal 
age of 5,150 years. This would be very slow growth ; 
scarcely more than the twenty-ninth part of an inch 
for the width of each annual ring ; that is, if the width 
of the annual ring were the twenty-ninth part of an 
inch, the tree would attain the diameter of thirty feet 
in 5,220 years, or in seventy years more than the sup- 
posed age of the tree. 

The age of this identical baobab, then, at Noah's 
deluge, being short of 1,000 years, its diameter would 
be short of six feet, and its girthing perhaps seventeen 
feet ; not an inconsiderable plant certainly, but small 
for so great an irrigation. Adanson's guess was made 
by cutting into the stem of the tree till the width of 
three hundred rings was measured. ' The average 
rate of growth of younger trees of the same species 
was then ascertained, and the calculation made ac- 
cording to a supposed mean rate of increase.' I quote 
from the admirable Lyell, who quotes the ' Biblioth. 
Univ.' on the longevity of trees. 

If the general average width of the rings, which 
included the growth of the young trees, was only the 
twenty -ninth part of an inch, what was the average of 
the first three hundred rings, which were all old 
growths ? Perhaps the fiftieth part of an inch. But 
Adanson should have given us these data, and his 
mode of calculation from them. I cannot help thinking 
that he may have made a slight mistake in these cal- 
culations ; that he may have omitted to perceive that, 



220 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



although to make up the diameter of a tree from the 
rings on one side of its centre the width of these rings 
must be reckoned double, to ascertain the age of the 
tree the number of the rings on one side of its centre 
must be reckoned single. The width of a half dia- 
meter must be doubled to make a whole diameter ; 
but when you count the years of a tree you must not 
double them to get at its age. ' There's ne'er a villain 
in all Denmark but he's an arrant rogue.' These 
three truisms seem equally profound and equally pal- 
pable. Yet I think that Adanson may have made the 
slip, and, with the tree standing, may have failed to 
perceive that the number of rings on the half diameter 
is the same as on the whole diameter ; and that, 
having doubled their width in completing the space or 
diameter, he has also doubled their number in reckon- 
ing the tiine or the age of the tree. If so, the number 
of years he has given must be halved^ and 2,575 years 
would be the age of the tree ; a pretty good age too, 
since it Avould nearly take us back to the time of 
Eomulus ! Even for this age, however, the growth 
must have been slow ; little more than the fifteenth 
part of an inch for the width of each annual ring. If 
the annual ring were one-eighth of an inch in width, 
the tree would attain the size of thirty feet in diameter 
in 1,440 years ; if the ring were one-fourth of an inch 
in width, in 720 years.'" 

* The simplest view of tlie case is this : — The baobab is thirtj 
feet in diameter — 360 inches. If the width of the annual ring 



PT. rv. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



221 



I think tliat the baobab should be ' restored to its 
place in universal history,' because the next step taken 
by physiologists on this datum of Adanson's will be, 
that all trees of thirty feet in diameter are 5,150 years 
of age ; and so, in proportion as the diameter of any 
tree exceeds or falls short of thirty feet, an age greater 
or less than 5,150 years will be assigned to it : from 
which it would result that a tree must grow 174 years, 
nearly two centuries, before it would attain one foot in 
diameter. Lyell, speaking of a submarine forest at 
Bournemouth, in Hampshire, says : ' Seventy-six rings 
of annual growth were counted in a transverse section 
of one of the buried trees, which was fourteen inches 
in diameter.' This, though exceedingly slow growth, 
is about three times the growth allowed by Adanson. 
But were the rings perfect on each half diameter ? 
If not, the width of those wanting on the deficient half 
diameter must be added to the fourteen inches of 
growth. On the other hand, and in accordance with 
the rule above, we are told that De Candolle thinks 
that the Montezuma cypress (Taxodium sempervirens) 
at Mexico exceeds the age of the baobab, — exceeds 
these poor 5,150 years in age. And this opinion is 
quoted, with profound respect, by one of the most 
profound men of the day, — by Lyell. Did De Can- 

"were half an incli, the growth in diameter wonld be an inch, and 
the years and the inches of growth would be the same. That is, 
the baobab would be 360 years old; allow half this growth, 
which is perhaps fair, the tree would be 720 years old. (Third 
edition.) 



222 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. lY. 



dolle think this before Adanson gave us his measure- 
ments and guesses? I'll be bound tliat he did not. 
I'll be bound that the first philosopher has taken the 
second philosopher's calculations for granted ; and, as 
the cypress exceeds the baobab in measurement, he 
concludes, naturally, that the cypress also exceeds the 
baobab in years. If the two philosophers are right, 
the two trees are slow growers. The measurement 
given of tlie cypress is 117 feet in girthing. This is 
about thirty-nine feet in diameter ; and, supposing tlie 
annual ring to be the twenty- ninth part of an inch in 
width, which is the rate of growth assigned by 
Adanson to the baobab, the age of the cypress should 
be 6,786 years. So that ' the seedling began to vege- 
tate' nearly a thousand years before the creation of 
man according to the Hebrew text of the Mosaic 
writinD;s. If the width of tlie annual rinc^ were one- 
eiglitli of an inch, the tree would attain the size of 
thirty-nine feet in diameter in 1872 years. If the 
width of the annual ring were one-fourth of an inch, 
the diameter of the tree would have been thirty-nine 
feet in 936 years ; and the Montezuma cypress would 
have been about 400 years old at the conquest of 
Mexico. This is, perhaps, more likely than that it 
should be a thousand years old in the time of Adam. 
The growth in girthing of trees in decay — that is, with 
hollow trunks and pollard heads — is indeed very di- 
minutive ; and to give them the girthing which they 
attain to, any number of years may be allowed. So 



PT. IT. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



223 



the growth in girthing of forest-trees will vary in the 
same tree, according to accidental circumstances. In 
Plate I. some of the early growths, when the plant 
had perfect room, exceed one-thn^d of an inch in 
width. Some of the later growths, when its head had 
been crowded to death by neighbours, scarcely exceed 
one-tenth of an inch. But if one- fourth of an inch is 
allowed for the annual ring of growing trees — that is, 
of sound trunks with full heads — in 5,000 years they 
would attain a diameter of more than 200 feet, and a 
girthing of more than 600 feet. If this growth is 
halved, and one-eighth of an inch width is allowed for 
the annual ring, a diameter of more than 100 feet, and 
a girthing of more than 300 feet, would result in 
5,000 years. We may ask, did the baobab grow in 
height for 5,000 years ? If so, the Adansonia digitata 
is too modest a name. (I speak as regards the tree, 
not the man.) It should be christened the Adam-o- 
father-ia Skyscrapo-moonrakiana ; though De CandoUe, 
or any man well up in botany, would give the first 
semi-diameter of this name from the Latin, and the 
last Grceco fonte. 

I think it possible that oaks, which habitually 
make two shoots in the year, may make two {annual ?) 
rings in the year : and this may be possible with many 
trees in the tropics. That trees of gigantic stature are 
not more frequently found in unappropriated forests is 
generally to be attributed to their want of room ; that 
is, to their growing so close as to injure or kill one 



224 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



another. They cannot attam to first-rate growth with- 
out ages of contention and kilhng all their neighbours. 
In doing so, the growth of the survivors is not only 
delayed for centuries, but in general permanently 
marred. The axe should gradually and successively 
relieve them from their neighbours. 

Of course, all side-growth is, from the position of 
its weight, more liable to break than upright or verti- 
cal growth. When a tree takes two leaders, from 
want of light and from want of room on the inside, the 
leaders grow from one another to the outside ; and 
from their weight inclining to the outside, without 
anything to balance it on the inside, they are liable to 
split from one another. As each leader enlarges 
annually in girthing, the junction at their two bases 
progresses upwards, inclosing the bark of each between 
the two. This double stratum of thick bark is killed 
by mechanical pressure, perhaps for a foot or two in 
height, and rots to that extent. This prevents the 
deposit of any new wood on those parts of the inside 
of either leader, and consequently also prevents the 
perfect junction, or anastomosing, of the wood of the 
two leaders. Water lodges in the hollow at the fork ; 
and a frost which is severe enough to freeze this water 
will rend apart the trunk of the sturdiest oak to a 
certainty. Besides this, the hollow at the fork becomes 
a leaf-trap, catches any dust which may be driven by 
wind, receives the moss and detritus of the bark which 
are washed down by rain, and forms a cupful of fine 



PT. rv. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



225 



dark mould. Into this the tree itself often strikes 
roots, which descend between and through the rotten 
bark which I have mentioned to its very base. Then 
comes the miraculous force of turgescence, acting in 
the true line of cleavage of the tree, and the twin 
leaders are rent from each other to as great a certainty 
as the granite is split by the wetted bolt of wood. I 
can show a root thus formed on an elm after (as I 
beheve) it had been the cause of splitting off half the 
tree. The root is still alive, though the soil in which 
it grew is gone. Whence comes the upward sap in 
the wood of this root? or of those denuded in the 
experiment which I have mentioned, p. 98 ? 

Early and constant pruning will avoid the cause of 
these fruitful sources of decay in timber. 

If the heads of trees are dying in, from accidental 
blight, or from the destruction of their leaves and 
shoots by a strong south-wester, or from frost, &c., in 
all cases they should be cut in, not only to where the 
boughs are alive, but to where they are vigorous, and, 
if possible, at the foot of a living twig or bud. If the 
dying boughs are left on the tree, the sap is wasted by 
going up the boughs, without the power of breaking 
out or returning, consequently the roots are starved ; 
for the only power of return — that is, the only com- 
munication between the upward course of the sap in 
the wood, and the downward course in the bark — is a 
hving leaf or bud. 

Q 



226 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



PT. IV. 



If the dying boughs are cut off, the sap, which 
would have been uselessly expended in them, invi- 
gorates the present shoots, or bursts forth in the form 
of new shoots, and, in returning, contributes to the 
growth and nourishment of the roots. In such cases, 
trees are often killed by being left ' to see where they 
break out.' They should be cut immediately : ' Bis 
dat qui cito dat.' This waste of the sap in the stem 
and branches, without the power to return to the root, 
is the reason why trees which are barked round just 
above the earth in general die. If young trees are cut 
down just above the earth, they shoot out again freely 
and continue to grow ; but if they are only barked, 
the sap going up the heart-wood diminishes the chance 
of an outbreak below, and without this outbreak the 
roots must die froni a want of descending sap. 

If a branch is not cut at the foot of a living twig, 
its end should be again cut off at the foot of the new 
shoot, in order that the descending sap of the new 
shoot may deposit wood and bark over the cut end. If 
long stump ends are allowed to remain, they rot before 
the new growth in diameter of their stock has inclosed 
and covered them. 

Near natural ponds, where the whole soil holds, the 
presence of trees is beneficial, from their prevention of 
evaporation, and from the condensation which takes 
place in moist warm weather, particularly on smooth- 
barked trees ; but near artificial ponds or dams no 



PT. IV. 



PRUNING AND THINNING. 



227 



growth whatever should be allowed : roots are the 
great creators of leaks. Nor should they be allowed 
on masonry. Eoots, by turgescence, will rend apart 
the strongest masonry, or lift any weight of stone. In 
Greece, Italy, and throughout the East, roots are the 
great dilapidators of the ruins of antiquity. We may 
observe the effect of a too sudden exposure to the op- 
posite force of drought in the warping and rending 
asunder of the strongest woody organisations. 



228 



THE PARK PINETUM. 



PT. T, 



PART V. 

THE PAEK PINETUM. 

I SHOULD like to say a word in recommendation of park 
pinetums as contrasted with flower-garden or lawn 
pinetums. 

As the generahty of pinuses grow by nature into 
magnificent and gigantic forest-trees, they should, I 
think, be planted in our parks as well as in our flower- 
gardens, shrubberies, and lawns. Lawn plants, it is 
true, produce an instant beautiful efiect as shrubs ; and 
as they have their boughs down to the ground, more 
shelter, and better soil, they surpass the young park 
plants in beauty. So the greenhouse or hothouse plant 
surpasses the lawn plant in beauty. But in how short 
a time does the greenhouse or lawn plant become too 
big for its boots! and the lawn plant must be cut down 
or mutilated, because it grows over this walk, or that 
flower-bed, or into this window or that door. Though 
exquisite when young, a few specimens will soon fill 
and overgrow the lawn pinetum. They have been 
planted as shrubs ; they are misplaced as trees ; and the 
greater the growth, the more we have to regret the 
position of our most favourite plants. 



PT. V. 



THE PARK PINETUM. 



229 



By comparison with the pleasure-ground pinetum, 
the park pinetum is infinite and eternal ; that is, any 
number of plants may be grown, and the greater the 
number, and the greater their size, the greater the 
beauty and interest of the pinetum. 

But short-lived mortals claim the short-lived plea- 
sure of the present hour, and a very little present pretty 
effect is greatly preferred to any quantity of infinity 
and eternity. And I do not mean to condemn lawn 
pinetums ; on the contrary, I think them inappreciably 
beautiful. What I plead for is, that we should also 
plant posterity park pinetums. If we do not live to see 
their beauty ourselves, we shall not die the sooner for 
having created it for those who succeed us on this 
earth. And must he be a liar who says he loves the 
neighbour whom he has not seen ? 

Pinuses should be planted out when from six inches 
to a foot high. I shall detail the method which I have 
followed, as my own labourer, in a small park pinetum 
since 1837. 

Dig a pit five feet in diameter, but go no deeper 
than the good upper soil ; throw the earth out ; add 
and mix as much good soil as you can afford. Having 
to wheel it myself, I used to think three barrows of 
road-sand from the nearest ditch a quantum, and half- 
a-dozen barrows a liberal allowance. In replacing the 
earth, put the turf at the bottom, and form a flat, low 
eminence brimming over the pit on to the undug 
ground outside, so that, when the loose earth in the pit 



230 



THE PARK PINETUM. 



PT. V. 



sinks to its former level, a raised outside rim remains. 
Tliis rim prevents iniuidation from without, and facili- 
tates irrigation from within. It also prevents cracks, in 
drought, between the old and the new ground. These 
cracks the roots have a difficulty in crossing. They 
admit the drought, and harbour mice, which will 
sometimes make a thoroughfare entirely round the 
plant. If the pit is dug deeper than the upper soil, the 
roots are enticed and entrapped in a cup whose sides 
are impervious to them. 

The roots of the pot pinus should be carefully un- 
wound ; if not they can never escape from the circular 
growth which the pot has given them, and the plant will 
die a self-strangled Laocoon. 

From mice, the small enemies which I have men- 
tioned below the soil, to the reach of a horse, seven feet 
above the soil, the pot park pinus has many enemies to 
contend with, including colts, cows, calves, sheep, 
lambs, hares, and rabbits ; and it must be confessed 
that a park pinetum comes under the head of ' the 
acquisition of pinuses under difficulties.' 

The common horse-fence, seven feet high, besides 
being a great dis-sight, shuts your pet pot plant from 
your view, perhaps for a dozen years. Instead of this, 
I recommend a low inside sheep and game fence, and a 
low outside cattle fence. As the cheapest sheep fence, 
a rabbit-proof circular wattle fence round the pit may 
be used, or an hexagonal wood fence four bars in 
height with a wire game fence inside. And as the 



PT. V. 



THE PARK PIJ^-ETUM. 



231 



cheapest outside fence, an hexagonal single post and 
rail, two feet nine inches from the ground. 

The best but dearest mode of fencing the pot pinus 
is by a circular sheep-fence of strong iron netting, three 
feet high round the pit. This fence may be lifted, and 
the interior ground kept hoed. The hoeings should be 
left on the surface, as future pabulum for the plant. 
There can be no better manure for plants than the re- 
mains of plants. If the hoeings are taken away, the 
soil is denuded at each hoeing. The best outside 
cattle-fence is eight iron hurdles, consisting only of an 
upper bar, two feet nine inches high, and an under bar 
close to the ground. Between these bars the sheep 
will pass to graze, so that no pasture is wasted, and no 
mowing necessary. When the plant is large enough, 
the inner fence may be taken away. The number of 
hurdles may be increased as the side-boughs increase ; 
and these side-boughs may for ever be let down to the 
sheep-browsing line, instead of being kept up to the 
horse-browsing line. More than this in the way of 
side-boughs one must not attempt, or pretend to, in the 
park or pasture. As for boughs down to the ground, 
the very fence which protects them hides them, and is 
a still greater dis-sight than the absence of the boughs. 
The trees are planted as trees, and must not be looked 
at as shrubs. But they will be looked at as shrubs ; 
and after having been at great pains and expense 
merely for the preservation of side-boughs, and when 
you can show larger and lower side-boughs than can be 



232 



THE PAEK PINETUM. 



PT. V. 



seen in any other pasture, you will catch it from tlie 
vulgar for the destruction of side-boughs. But the 
vulgar are here as unreasonable as usual, and might as 
well require the park pasture to be laid out in flower- 
beds, or decked with greenhouse plants. 

On this system the pot pinus may be planted, when 
only an inch or two in height, in places exposed to 
cattle, and may be seen, pruned, cultivated, and petted^ 
from first to last. 

In deer-parks the pot pinus may be protected by a 
wire game-fence and numerous circles of shglit rails, of 
which the plant is the common centre, about a foot 
from the ground and from one another. These fend 
off cattle by extangling their legs. The objections to 
this fence are, sometimes a broken leg to cattle, and 
always sacrifice of pasture. 

The plants should be kept tied, by three strings, to 
the sheep-fence. When a large pinus requires steady- 
ing, or has been shaken by the wind, it should be made 
fast to the horse-rail, or iron hurdles, by three chains ; 
the angles between the chains being equal each to each. 
The chains should be fastened with aS hooks round 
boughs, with lead between the chains and the boughs, 
in order to keep the stem intact. They should run up 
as high as convenient, like the rigging of a mast. This 
for two reasons : first, the higher the ties, the greater 
the mechanical advantage in holding against a strong 
wind ; secondly, if the part which you attempt to fix 
has any motion, it will be felt at the root inversely as 



PT. V. 



THE PARK PINETUM. 



233 



the distance of the ties from the root. Cords get tight 
in wet, and loose in drought. 

An insiguis raised in this way, planted in the 
autumn of 1837, is now (1853) above thirty-seven 
feet high. This is not much more than two feet each 
year ; but the three last shoots measure together nine 
feet eight inches, and had the plant not been blown 
over when young, and its leader browsed by cattle, and 
afterwards broken by wind, I think its growth in height 
would have averaged a yard a year. The soil is clay 
on chalk (very unfavourable for pinuses), with a few 
barrows of road-sand mixed at the first planting. 

I have never met with any observations on the 
length of time which the grasses^ or leaves of cone- 
bearing trees, remain alive. Perhaps two whole years 
at the least ; in many cases, much longer ; and I should 
doubt if the Araucaria and Cryptomeria have any fixed 
natural period for shedding their leaves. The gene- 
rality of English evergreens defoliate as regularly as 
other trees called deciduous ; but evergreens retain 
their leaves about a whole year ; deciduous trees, about 
half a year. 

I wish I could persuade people to ornament the 
waysides. Vulgar-minded persons think they have 
done a clever thing, and that they have gained much 
when they have robbed the waste. But these waysides 
might be made with little trouble and no expense com- 
paratively parks and gardens. I dare not ask the rich 
to plant avenues with ' the Tree-lifter ' on common 

R 



234 



THE PARK PINETUM. 



PT. V 



pastures. But let the landowner not cut down the hol- 
lies in hedgerows which border the waysides, and let 
anyone plant a few boxes (which no cattle will touch), 
and stick a red beech, or a Deodara, here and there 
amid protecting brambles. Gentle hands might dibble 
in plants of this sort near our villages, whose beauty 
might appropriate to the young and the landless miles 
of wayside garden ground. If this system were pursued 
through our beautiful island, what a garden of Eden we 
should make of it. And if in the attempt we occasion- 
ally get a blow from the ruthless or the thoughtless, is 
this different from our usual experience every day, 
every where, in every thing ? 

Concluding I coucludc by rccommcnding the practice of trans- 
remarks. 

planting with the ball of earth, without reference to the 
theories with which it has been supported. Indeed, 
with regard to them, I do not beheve that in all vege- 
table physiology or agricultural chemistry there is one 
principle to be depended on. In fact, agricultural 
chemistry is a new hght to us, for the first glimmerings 
of which we are indebted to our immortal Davy. I say 
this with the deepest veneration for the brilliant talents 
and undaunted perseverance of those who have devoted 
themselves, or who still do devote themselves, to 
sciences of the first importance to the existence of man 
and the honour of his Creator ; and with a heartfelt 
disgust at those who, pluming themselves on their pro- 
gress in lower but more certain science, presume to 



PT. V. 



THE PARK PINETUM. 



235 



taunt with their want of success philosophers who have 
attempted a labour, perhaps superhuman — to throw 
light on the hitherto impenetrable darkness which has 
enveloped the processes of vitality — to delineate the 
actually progressing operations of the hand of the 
Almighty in his noblest, most finished, most complicated 
w^orks. It is the unthinking only who, becoming inured 
to the universally perpetual recurrence of the generation 
and growth of organic existences, take these most mys- 
terious miracles as matters of course, and behold them 
with indifference. 



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INDEX. 



Acton s Modem Cookery 40 

A ird's Blackstone Economised 39 

Airy's Hebrew Scriptures 29 

Alpine Club Alap of Switzerland 34 

Alpine Guide (The) 34 

Amos' s Jurisprudence 10 

Primer of the Constitution 10 

Anderson's Strength of Materials 20 

Artnstrong's Organic Chemistry 20 

Arnold: s (Dr.) Christian Life 29 

Lectures on Ivlodern History 2 

Miscellaneous Works 13 

School Sermons 29 

Sermons 29 

(T. ) Manual of English Literature 12 

Atherstone Priory 36 

Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson ... 14 

Ayre's Treasiuy of Bible Knowledge 39 

Bacon's Essays, by Whaiely 11 

• Life and Letters, by ^/^(fifzV^^ ... 11 

Works 10 

Bains Mental and Moral Science 12 

on the Senses and Intellect 12 

Emotions and Will 12 

Baker's Tavo Works on Ceylon 34 

Ball' s Guide to the Central Alps 34 

Guide to the Western Alps 35 

Guide to the Eastern Alps 34 

Bancroft's Native Races of the Pacific 23 

Barry on Railway Appliances 20 

Becker's Charicles and Gallus 35 

Black's Treatise on Brewing 40 

Blackley's German- EngUsh Dictionary 16 

Blame s Rural Sports 37 

Bloxam's Metals 20 

Boultbee on 39 Articles 29 

Bourne s Catechism of the Steam Engine . 27 

• Handbook of Steam Engine 27 

Treatise on the Steam Engine ... 27 

• Improvements in the same 27 

Bowdlers Family Shakspeare 37 

Bramley-Moore s Six Sisters of the Valley . 36 
Brande's Dictionary of Science, Literature, 

and Art 23 

Brinkley's Astronomy 12 

Browne s Exposition of the 39 Articles 29 

Buckle s History of Civilisation 3 

Posthumous Remains 12 

Buckton s Health in the House 24 

Bull's Hints to Mothers 40 

Maternal Management of Children . 40 

Burgomaster's Family (The) 34 

Burke's Rise of Great Families 8 



Burkes Vicissitudes of Families 8 

Busk's Folk-lore of Rome 35 

Valleys of Tirol 33 

Cabinet Lawyer 40 

Campbell's Norway 35 

Gates' s Biographical Dictionary 8 

and Woodward' s Encyclopaedia ... 5 

Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths ... 14 

Ckesney's Indian Polity 3 

Modem Military Biography 4 

Waterloo Campaign 3 

Codringto7i s Life and Letters 7 

Colenso on Aloabite Stone &c 32 

' s Pentateuch and Book of Joshua. 32 

Collier's Demosthenes on the Crown 13 

Commonplace Philosopher in Towtl and 

Country, by A. K. H. B 14 

Cojnte's Positive PoHty 8 

Congreve's Essays 9 

Politics of Aristotle 11 

Conington's Translation of Virgil's ^neid 37 

Miscellaneous Writings 13 

J Two French Dictionaries ... 15 
Conybeare and Howson s Life and Epistles 

of St. Paul 30 

Corneille' s Le Cid 3^ 

Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit... 14 

Coxs (G. W.) Aryan Mythology 4 

Crusades 6 

History of Greece 4 

General History of Greece 4 

School ditto 4 

Tale of the Great Persian 

War 4 

. Tales of Ancient Greece ... 3 

Crawley's Thucydides 

Creighton!s Age of Elizabeth 

Cresy's Encyclopaedia of Civil Engineering 2; 

Critical Essays of a Country Parson i. 

Crookes's Chemical Analysis 2 

Dyeing and Calico-printing 2! 

Culley's Handbook of Telegraphy 2; 



Davidsons Introduction to the New Tes- 
tament 3 

D'Atibignes Reformation 3 

De Caisne and Le Maoufs Botany 2 

De Morgans Paradoxes i 

De Tocqueville s Democracy in America... 
Disraeli's Lord George Bentinck 



42 NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS 8c CO. 



Disraeli's Novels and Tales 35 

Dobson on the Ox 38 

Dove s Law of Storms 18 

Doyle's (R.) Fairyland 25 

Eastlake s Hints on Household Taste 26 

Edwards's Rambles among the Dolomites 34 

Nile 32 

Elements of Botany 23 

Ellicott's Commentary on Ephesians 30 

Galatians 30 

Pastoral Epist. 30 

Philippians,&c. 30 

■ Thessalonians , 30 

Lectures on Life of Christ 29 

Elsa : a Tale of the Tyrolean Alps 36 

Evans (J.) Ancient Stone Implements ... 23 

(A. J.) Bosnia 33 

EwaLfs History of Israel 30 

Antiquities of Israel 31 



Fairhairn s Application of Cast and 

Wrought Iron to Building... 27 

Information for Engineers 27 

Life 7 

Treatise on Mills and Millwork 27 

Farrars Chapters on Language 13 

■ Families of Speech 13 

Fiizwygram on Horses and Stables 38 

Forbes' s Two Years in Fiji 33 

Francis's Fishing Book 37 

/^;-d'<?;/za7/ ' J- Historical Geogi-aphy of Europe 6 

Freshfield's Italian Alps 33 

Froude's English in Ireland 2 

History of England 2 

Short Studies 12 



Gairdfiers Houses of Lancaster and York 6 

Ganot's Elementary Physics 20 

Natural Philosophy 19 

Gai'diner's Buckingham and Charles 3 

Thirty Years' War 6 

Geffcken s Church and State 10 

German Home Life 13 

Gibson's Religion and Science 29 

Gilbert 6^ Churchill's Dolomites . 34 

Girdlestone s Bible Synonyms 29 

Goodeve's Mechanics 20 

• Mechanism 20 

Grant's Ethics of Aristotle 11 

Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson 14 

Grevi lie's Journal 2 

Griffi7t' s Algebra and Trigonometry 20 

Grohmans Tyrol and the Tyrolese 32 

Grove (Sir W. R. ) on Correlation of Phy- 
sical Forces 19 

(F. C. ) The Frosty Caucasus 32 

Gwilt's Encyclopasdia of Architecture 26 

Harrison s Order and Progress 9 

Hartley on the Air 19 

liartivig's Aerial World 22 

■ Polar World 22 



Hartwigs Sea and its Living Wonders ... 22 

Subterranean World 22 

Tropical World 22 

Haiightoti s Animal Mechanics 20 

/2''<3'_y^t:'^7/-^/'J■ Biographical and Critical Essays 7 

Heathcotc s Fen and Mere 28 

Heine s Life and Works, by Stigand 7 

Helmholtz on Tone 23 

Helniholiz s Scientific Lectures 19 

Helnisley's Trees, Shrubs, and Herbaceous 

Plants 24 

-^T^rjf/^^?/' J' Outlines of Astronomy 18 

Hinchliff' s Over the Sea and Far Away ... 33 

Holland's Fragmentary Papers 21 

Holms on the Army 4 

Hullah's History of Modern Music 23 

Transition Period 23 

Humes Essays 12 

Treatise on Human Nature 12 

Ihne's Histor\' of Rome 5 

Indian Alps 32 

Ingelow's Poems 37 



Jameson s Legends of Saints and IMartyrs . 26 

Legends of the Madonna 26 

Legends of the Monastic Orders 26 

Legends of the Saviour 26 

Jclf on Confession 30 

Jenkin's Electricity and Magnetism 20 

Jerravis Lycidas of Milton 35 

Jerrold's Life of Napoleon 2 

yohnston's Geographical Dictionary 17 

Jnhes's Types of Genesis 31 

on Second Death 31 

KaliscJis Commentary on the Bible 30 

Keith! s Evidence of Prophecy 30 

Kerl's Metallurg)"-, by Crookes and Rohrig . 27 

Kingsley s American Lectures 13 

Kirby and Speiice s Entomology 21 

Kirkma7i' s Philosophy 11 

Kiiatchbnll-Hugcssen s W^hispers from 

Fairy-Land ... 35 
Higgledy-piggledy 35 



Lamartine s Toussaint Louverture 36 

Landscapes, Churches, &c. by A. K. H. B. 14 

Lang's Ballads and Lyrics 36 

Latham's English Dictionary 15 

Handbook of the Enghsh Lan- 
guage 15 

Laughton s Nautical Surveying 19 

Lawrence on Rocks 22 

Lecky's History of European Morals 5 

Rationalism 5 

Leaders of Public Opinion 8 

Lee's Kesslerloch 22 

Lefroy's Bermudas 33 

Leisure Hours in Town, by A. K. H, B.... 14 

Lessons of Middle Age, by A. K. H. B.... 14 

Lewes' s Biographical History of Philosophy 6 



NEW WORKS PUBLISHED 



BY LONGMANS &, CO. 43 



Lt-K'is on Authority 12 

LiddcllAwd Scoit's Greek-English Lexicons 16 

Lindlcy and Moore's Treasury of Botany... 23 

Lloyd's Magnetism 21 

— '- — Wave-Theory of Light 21 

Longmans (F. VC.) Chess Openings 40 

German Dictionary ... 15 

(\V.) Edward the Third... ^ 2 

. Lectures on History of 

England 2 

Old and New St. Paul's 26 

London's Encyclopcedia of Agriculture ... 28 

Gardening ...... 28 

Plants 24 

Lnbbock's Origin of Civilisation 22 

Lyra Germanica 32 

Alacaulays (Lord) Essays i 

History of England i 

Lays of Ancient Rome 25, 36 

Life and Letters 7 

Miscellaneous Writings 12 

Speeches 12 

Works 2 

JUcCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce 16 

Macleod's Principles of Economical Philo- 
sophy 10 

Theory' and Practice of Banking 39 

Elements of Banking 39 

Mademoiselle Mori 36 

Malct's Annals of the Road 37 

Malleson s Genoese Studies 3 

Native States of India 3 

Marshall s Physiology 25 

Marskman s History of India 3 

Life of Havelock 8 

Martineau s Christian Life 32 

Hymns .7 31 

Maunder s Biographical Treasury 39 

Geographical Treasury 39 

Historical Treasuiy 39 

Scientific and Literary Treasury 39 

Treasury' of Knovdedge 39 

Treasury of Natural History ... 39 

Maxzi-ell's Theory of Heat 20 

May's History of Democracy 2 

History of England 2 

Melville's Digby Grand 36 

General Bounce 36 

Gladiators 36 

Good for Nothing 36 

Holmby House 36 

• Interpreter 36 

Kate Coventry 36 

• Queens Maries 36 

Menzies Forest Trees and Woodland 

Scenery 24 

Merivale's Fall of the Roman Republic ... 5 

General History of Rome 4 

Romans under the Empire 4 

Jiferrif eld's AriXhm&iic and Mensuration... 20 

Miles on Horse's Foot and Horse Shoeing 38 

on Horse's Teeth and Stables 38 

Mill (J.) on the Mind 10 

(J. S.) on Liberty 9 

on Representative Government 9 

Utilitarianism 9 

Autobiography 7 



Mill's Dissertations and Discussions 9 

Essays on Religion c^c 29 

Hamilton's Philosophy 9 

System of Logic 9 

Political Economy 9 

Unsettled Questions 9 

Miller's Elements of Chemistry 24 

Inorganic Chemistry 20 

Mintds (Lord) Life and Letters 7 

Mitchell's Manual of Assaying 28 

Modern Novelist's Library 36 

Monsell's ' Spiritual Songs ' 32 

Moore's Irish IVIelodies, illustrated 2.6 

Morant' s Game Preservers 22 

Aloreir s Elements of Psychology 11 

■ Mental Philosophy 11 

Mailer's Chips from a German Workshop. 13 

Science of Language 13 

Science of Religion 5 

Neisoii on the Moon 18 

New Reformation, by Tlieodoms 4 

New Testament, Illustrated Edition 25 

Northcott's Lathes and Turning 26 

(9' Ci3;2cr' J Commentary on Hebrews 31 

• Romans 31 

St. John 31 

Owen's Comparative Anatomy and Physio- 
logy of Vertebrate Animals 21 

Packe's Guide to the P)Tenees 35 

Paget' s Naval Powers 28 

Pattiso7i' s Casaubon 7 

Payeii's Industrial Chemistry 26 

Pewtner s Comprehensive Specifier 40 

Pierce's Chess Problems 40 

Plunkefs Travels in the Alps 33 

Pole's Game of Whist jo 

Preece & Sivewright's Telegraphy 20 

Prcndergast' s iMastery of Languages 16 

Present-Day Thoughts, by A. K. H. B. ... 14 

Proctor's Astronomical Essays 17 

Moon 17 

Orbs around Us 18 

Other Worlds than Ours 18 

Saturn 17 

^ Scientific Essays (New Series) ... 21 

• Sun 17 

Transits of Venus 17 

Two Star Atlases i3 

Universe 17 

Public Schools Atlas of Ancient Geography 17 

Atlas of Modern Geography 17 

Manual of Modern Geo- 
graphy 17 

Rawlinson s Parthia 5 

Sassanians 5 

Recreations of a Country Parson 14 

Redgrave s Dictionary of Artists 25 

Re illy s Map of Mont Blanc 34 

— IMonte Rosa 34 

Reresbys Alemoirs _ 8 



41 



NEW WORKS PUBLISHED BY LONGMANS & CO. 



Heynardson s Down the Road 37 

Rich's Dictionary of Antiquities 15 

River s Rose Amateur's Guide 23 

Rogers s Eclipse of Faith 30 

Defence of EcHpse of Faith 30 

Essays. 9 

Rogct's Thesaurus of English Words and 

Phrases 15 

Ronald's Fly-Fisher's Entomology 38 

R osc oe s 0\\\Xm&% oi Q\\S\. Procedure 10 

Rothschild' s Israehtes 30 

.Russell's Recollections and Suggestions ... 2 



Sandarss Justinian's Institutes 10 

on Apparitions 13 

on Primitive Faith 30 

-Schellens Spectrum Analysis 19 

Scott's Lectures on the Fine Arts 25 

Poems 25 

Papers on Civil Engineering 28 

Seaside Musing, by A. K, H. B 14 

.Secbohm s Oxford Reformers of 1498 4 

Protestant Revolution 6 

Sczvcll's Questions of the Day 31 

Preparation for Communion 31 

Stories and Tales 36 

Thoughts for the Age 31 

History of France 3 

Shelley s Workshop Appliances 20 

■Short's Church History 6 

Simpson's Meeting the Sun 34 

Smith's [Sydney) Essays 12 

Wit and Wisdom 13 

(Dr. R. A.) Air and Rain 19 

Soiithey's Doctor 13 

Poetical Works 37 

.Stanley's History of British Birds 22 

Stephen s Ecclesiastical Biography 8 

Stockniar's Memoirs 7 

Stonehenge on the Dog 38 

on the Greyhound 38 

Stoney on Strains 28 

Sunday Afternoons at the Parish Church of 

a University City, by A. K. H. B 14 

Supernatural Religion 32 

Swinbournc s Picture Logic 11 

Taylor s History of India 3 

Manual of Ancient History 6 

Manual of Modern History 6 

[Jereiny) Works, edited hy Eden. 31 

Text-Books of Science 20 

Thomsons Laws of Thought 11 

Thorpe's Quantitative Analysis 20 



Thorpe and Mziir's Qualitative Analysis ... 20 

Todd (A.) on Parliamentary Government... 2 

Trench's Realities of Irish Life 13 

Trollope's Barchester Towers 36. 

Warden 36 

Twiss's Law of Nations 10 

Tyndalts American Lectures on Light ... 20 

Diamagnetism 20 

Fragments of Science 20 

Lectures on Electricity 21 

Lectures on Light 21 

Lectures on Sound 20 

Heat a Mode of Motion 20 

Molecular Physics 20 

6''^^<rrzy^^'j System of Logic 11 

Ure s Dictionary of Arts, Mamifactures, 

and Mines 27 

Voltaire's Zaire 36 

Walker on Whist 40 

Warburton s Edward the Third 6 

Watson s Geometry 20 

Watts' s Dictionary of Chemistry 25 

Webb's Objects for Common Telescopes ... 18 

Wcinhold's Experimental Physics 19 

Wellington s Life, by Gleig 8 

Whately's English Synonymes 15 

Logic II 

Rhetoric 11 

White and Riddle's Latin Dictionaries ... 16 

Wilcocks's Sea-Fisherman 38 

Williajns s Arisloile's Ethics 11 

Wood's (T. G. ) Bible Animals 22 

Homes without Hands ... 21 

Insects at Home 21 

Insects Abroad 21 

Out of Doors 22 

Strange Dwellings 21 

(J. T. ) Ephesus 33 

Wyatt's History of Prussia 3 

Yonge' s English-Greek Lexicons 16 

Horace 37 

Youatt on the Dog 3^ 

on the Horse 3^ 

Zeller's Plato ^ 

Socrates 5 

Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics... 5 

Zinimern's Life of Schopenhauer 7 



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